Paranoia Fuel
by HitTheRoad
Summary: She looks at him and sees a freak, a criminal. A Flippy/Flaky story, with The Happy Tree Friends as humans, dwelling with their teenage problems during high school.
1. Properly Paranoid

**Author's note:** A _Happy Tree Friends _story from Flaky's point of view. The action takes place during high school and most characters are teenagers of the same age, except for Lumpy, Mole and Pup, who are adults, and Cub, who is a kid, obviously. Due to the fact that they are all humans, I have decided to change their names to an extent, but they will still resemble their original names, anyway.

Their human names will be:

Cuddles-Cody; Giggles- Ginger; Toothy- Thomas; Lumpy- Liam; Flippy- Phillip; Flaky- Flaker;

Petunia - stays Petunia (is human enough); Handy- Hayden; Sniffles- Stanley; Nutty- Nathan; Mime- Mike; Mole- Malcolm;

Pop- Porter; Cub- Corbin; Lifty and Shifty- Luke and Shane; Russell- stays Russell; Disco Bear- David Brian; Splendid- Spencer;

Lammy- Lana; Cro-Marmot- Cormac;

**Warning:** This story will contain inappropriate language, attempted rape scenes and violence (Flippy is in it, _really_). I will rate it T/M, with more on the T part, but it will have some M parts, as well.

**Summary:** She looks at him and sees a freak, a criminal. A Flippy and Flaky story, with The Happy Tree Friends as humans, dwelling with their teenage problems during high school.

...

She wasn't weird. No, she wasn't weird at all.

In fact, she was the most down to earth, normal person in that high school, even though her friends told her that she was weird. They were all wrong and they were supposed to be more like her, more aware of what was going on around them.

Because she was aware all the time. Maybe too aware sometimes, but life was dangerous and she was doing what it was necessary to survive.

That wasn't paranoia. It was consciousness.

"Flaker Thorn."

She jumped in her seat and raised her reddish-brown eyes to see her math teacher looking at her like she had grown an oversized head. She heard the other kids snickering around her and she frowned when she realized that they were laughing at her.

Again.

"Pay attention because I'm not here just to look at you. And stop being paranoid."

Great. Another person who categorized her as paranoid. She looked down nervously and nodded.

"Yes, Mr. Liam. I'm sorry."

She turned her head discretely and threw a look over her shoulder only to face tenths of mocking faces and grins turned in her direction. The only persons who weren't amused were Stanley and Phillip, but she had expected this because Stanley had had a crush on her since the 9th grade and Phillip was... Phillip. The strangest student from 'The Happy Tree' High School.

Flaker trembled only when she thought about him. She admitted that she was easily scared, but Phillip Phren was one of her biggest nightmares and, even though her friends, especially Cody and Thomas, always laughed at her absurd fears, they considered him strange too, and didn't want anything to do with him. If she thought better, no one in that high school wanted anything to do with him. She rarely saw him in someone's company, he always stood alone during lunch, at a table in the corner of the cafeteria, and he almost never addressed to anyone.

She remembered the first year of high school, when he was quite friendly and sociable and he had managed to befriend Cody and a few other kids, but he suddenly withdrew later and became quiet and introverted and the others gave up at their attempts to contact him after the rumors that spread about him. Rumors that terrified her and gave her nightmares many months, after she found out about them. Even then, she sometimes had nightmares about him.

He was an outsider even to the outsiders and she couldn't understand how someone could be so alone.

Not that she particularly cared, of course. She was just curious.

She suddenly realized that she had looked at him too much, because he turned his gaze towards her and the corners of his mouth lifted in what appeared to be a smile. She squeaked and turned brusquely, feeling a cold shiver traveling down her spine.

God, she was such a _coward_.

She inhaled deeply and calmed down a bit, trying to forget about her nightmares and concentrate on the lesson, without thinking about horrific things like she used to, until the bell rang, signaling the end of the period. She stood up and left the classroom in a hurry, avoiding everyone's stares, then stopped when she reached her locker, at the end of the hall.

She was pulling out her English and Chemistry books and stuffing them into her red bag, when a hand grabbed her shoulder, almost making her drop them. She turned her head in alarm and exhaled relieved when she saw Ginger, Cody and Thomas.

"Dude, you need to mellow out, you're gonna have a stroke one day. " Thomas said, grinning.

"Yeah, Flaky." Cody spoke. "Today you're really tense, even more than usual. Did you see a ghost or what?"

"Nah, there aren't such things as ghosts. But there are scarier things." Thomas replied for her and widened his eyes dramatically, looking like someone or something was about to attack him in any moment. He bent forward and whispered, trying to appear frightening. "Flippy."

The boys gave a roar of laughter that took by surprise a bunch of juniors who looked at them offended then walked away.

Everybody at school called Phillip 'Flippy' behind his back, because he sometimes acted like a lunatic in classes. In one moment he was quiet and normal- as normal as he could be-, the next they knew, he flipped out, snapping at the teachers, and made nasty comments like he was about to go on a rampage.

That was why he usually ended in detention and it was probably one of the main reasons he got low grades, even though he was actually pretty smart. There were a few brave souls who dared to say the nickname in front of him, but Flaker didn't think he really knew just how many people made fun of him. She actually pitied him a little bit.

Ginger frowned and slapped Cody and Thomas on the back of their heads.

"Will you cut it out? You're embarrassing." She scolded them.

"Aww, but you got to admit that it was a pretty good joke, Ginge." Cody wriggled his eyebrows and she rolled her eyes, exasperated.

Ginger was one of the most desired girls in the school along with her best friend, Petunia, but, since Petunia had already a boyfriend, that meant the pink-haired girl was the target number one at that moment. Cody, Spencer and David Brian were some of the many boys who viciously tried to hit that target and Flaker had a hunch that Cody had a great advantage, unlike the others. First, because Cody and Ginger had been good friends for years and second- Ginger seemed to like him as well.

"Actually," Flaker interfered, "Yeah, Phillip Phren is the one who scared me." She paused and gulped. "He stared at me."

The other three's eyes bulged out in amazement and fixed her, impressed.

"Holy chewing gum!" Someone behind them erupted and they all turned to see Nathan, having the same surprised expression, while he passionately crunched some candies that he had stored in his pockets. He measured Flaker and his mouth hung open in surprise.

"You mean _that_ Phillip Phren?" He inquired excitedly. She nodded and he grabbed her shoulders, even more enthusiastic, making her flinch. She knew Nathan was the head of all gossiping and that he was fascinated by what happened to other people almost as much as he was fascinated by sweets, but she couldn't stand when someone touched her. She cringed when Nathan dug his fingers into her arms and kept questioning her like the end of the world was coming. She believed that his hyperactive behavior was one of the consequences of having too much sugar in his blood.

"Phillip Phren as in Flippy, right?" She nodded, starting to tremble. "How did he stare at you? When?"

"W-well, h-he smiled and-"

"He _smiled_?" The three boys asked at the same time and Flaker backed away from them, a little aghast.

Ginger stepped in between them and threw them an annoyed look.

"Okay, guys, leave poor Flaky alone. You're worse than girls."

They continued to stare at her in awe for a few moments, before Ginger reminded them that half of the lunch break was over and they hurried up to the cafeteria, forgetting about their discussion. Or that was what Flaker thought, until the subject was brought into focus once again, at the table. And this time, Petunia and her boyfriend, Hayden, were the ones who gaped at her in wonder, while Nathan told them about the new rumor.

"- and then, that Flippy guy actually smiled at her, can you believe that?" Nathan snickered.

Petunia flipped her long, dark blue hair and patted Flaker on her hand, trying to comfort her.

"You poor thing." She spoke soothingly.

"Man, that must have been pretty terrifying for you." Hayden told her.

Flaker didn't answer. Instead, she just frowned. That guy just looked at her, for god's sake, and she was sure that until the next day, half of the school was going to make a great fuss over it. Her friends were overreacting in an unbelievable manner about such a small thing and she couldn't comprehend why it was such a big deal. Or that was something specific to teenagers. If it was, then that meant she wasn't really a teenager.

"And what do we have here, Luke?" A mischievous voice spoke above her head.

"I don't know, Shane." A second voice, almost identical to the first one, answered. "It appears that miss cowardice received _the glare_ from the mighty freak."

"Oh, god, not the asshole brothers." Cody growled in annoyance.

Flaker felt two pairs of eyes behind her throwing daggers at Cody.

"What's the matter, blondie? Your pink mom forgot your mouth leash at home?" Shane commented, looking at Cody, who clenched his fists, and Ginger, who turned red under the others' gaze.

Nathan snorted, on the verge of laughter, but he stopped when he saw the dangerous look Petunia gave him. The twins pushed Thomas and Hayden aside and both sat next to Flaker, who shrank when they fixed her with their eyes that resembled small, shiny headlights.

"You're his next victim, red flake." Luke smirked as he glared down his nose at her.

"His next victim?" She asked confused. She observed her friends' worried expressions and she mentally smacked herself for not realizing what the twin meant.

Then it hit her like a truck. She froze in her place and stopped blinking for a few moments.

"Come on, you idiot, you're saying that just to scare her." Thomas interfered, but Flaker sensed hesitation in his voice.

Luke and Shane laughed loudly, then scanned them all, one by one.

"You all know it." Shane told them. "When that freak looks at you, you're going to die. You never know what he has in store for you. Then..."

"Bam!" Luke snapped, making Ginger, Petunia and Flaker jump in their seats. "You're dead."

"I don't believe it." Hayden was the first who spoke after a dead silence. "These are old rumors and they are fake anyway. No deaths have occurred for over a year."

"Yeah, and if he was actually a murderer, the police would have arrested him." Petunia tried to sustain her boyfriend. "Just because he's strange, that doesn't mean he has automatically killed people."

The twins shook their heads and crossed their arms in false disappointment.

"They're right, you guys." Nathan muttered, his face dead serious, which was unusual for him. That meant he was either scared or sick and Flaker doubted it was the last one. "Remember Cormac, Ginger's first boyfriend? Or Lana, that girl who had schizophrenia and always talked to a pickle she carried after her? They were the only persons who came in contact with Flippy after the first year of high school. They were gruesomely murdered a few months after they socialized with that guy."

Silence enveloped their table once again, while the rest of the students chattered around them, oblivious to their tensioned conversation. They turned their stares in his table's direction and saw him standing there alone, as always. He was apparently reading something, but they couldn't distinguish what it was.

"I bet he reads a guide about how to murder without being discovered." Shane told them.

"Yeah," Luke continued. "And what's that in his plate? It looks like organs covered in blood."

"Dude! Cody said peeved, "It's just roast beef with red sauce, I have the same thing in my plate."

His friends looked for a brief second at his plate, then glared at the twins in annoyance, but the brothers shrugged and grinned innocently. They all looked in his direction again, but suddenly turned away when they realized he was staring at them.

"Shit, he figured out we were spying on him." Thomas blurted out nervously.

"Uh-oh." The twins voiced in union. "We're outta here."

They sat up and disappeared through the mass of students that clogged the cafeteria.

"And they call me a coward." Flaker murmured in a sly voice.

"They're just a couple of jerks." Ginger addressed to them, crossing her arms. She appeared to be upset after Nathan mentioned Cormac's death.

"And liars." Cody spoke grimly. "Don' t believe a word they said, Flaky. Those deaths were just coincidences." He encouraged her.

"I don't know, he does seem a little suspicious..." Nathan scratched his chin in deep thought, although he grinned widely when Petunia gave him the dangerous glare for the second time that day. "Fine!" He defended himself, raising his hands. "I'm just trying to make our lives a little more interesting, that's all."

"You know, you're not far from the asshole brothers, you junkie." Thomas mocked him, receiving a punch in the shoulder from his friend.

They changed the subject and started talking about the horrible Philosophy test they were having next week, but Flaker couldn't concentrate on what they were saying anymore. She couldn't stop thinking about their previous discussion and about the old rumors that had spooked the entire school a year ago and that almost traumatized her, due to the nightmares they gave her.

Maybe her friends tried to make her forget about it. Maybe they comforted her and supported her, despite that she had a small feeling that those rumors were actually true, even though it was preposterous and silly to think like that.

He was just a student like they were. A weird one, but she was weird, as well, according to her friends.

She looked at him with the corner of her eye and widened her eyes.

He was smiling at her again.

...

Flaker looked through the window and observed the heavy, black clouds that gathered above the city. She rested her chin in her palm and sighed heavily, while bits of words reached her ears. Jumbled words, that she couldn't understand, words that she couldn't concentrate on.

She was a good student, an excellent one. The only one who defeated her in the grade hunt was Stanley, but that was because he was a genius in technology, math, physics and everything related to science, in general.

"Psst. Flaker." A piece of paper hit her shoulder.

She turned around and noticed Stanley making her signs, two seats away from her, on the same row.

"Do you want to be my partner?" He asked in a shushed voice and smiled hopefully at her.

"Part-ner ?" Flaker stopped and turned towards her biology teacher, Mr. Porter, or Pop, as the students called him, because he acted like a father most of the time. Apparently, that day wasn't a part of that time. He explained to them the way he was going to choose the partners that were going to work together on different essays, that semester.

"So, I will choose a different subject for the each essay." He told them.

Mike raised his hand and stretched himself as high out of his seat as he could, but Pop answered him, before he even asked the question.

"And no. You don't have the right to choose your own partner. I will pair you after your grades. On short, the student who has the best results will be paired with the one who has the lowest grades. The second best student will be paired with the second worst student and so on. Got it?"

A collective groan was heard from the class and Pop snapped at them in irritation, telling them to be quiet. After most of them calmed down, he droned out the first team.

"Nathan, you're the weakest student. You will be paired with Stanley and your subject will be excretion."

A few kids burst into laughs and Nathan protested in indignation.

"That's not fair! Why do I have to be with Mr. Boring over there? And we have the most pathetic subject ever!"

"Silence!" Pop interrupted him. "The grade on this assignment will be a part of your final results. And I assure you that your grades are not enchanting at all, Mr. Gobbet." Pop spoke through his teeth, then rubbed his temples and squeezed his eyes shut, something he often did when aggravated.

When he observed that Nathan was still standing up, he threatened him that he was going to confiscate his stash of candies if he didn't sit down fast. The boy smiled uneasily and did as he was told, clenching the packet of sweets in his hand.

Flaker heard Stanley sigh behind her and mouthed to him 'sorry', throwing him an apologetic look.

"Flaker." The teacher turned to her and scanned the list in his hand. "Your partner will be Phillip."

Whispers and movement suddenly filled the class and she felt many stares burning holes into the back of her head. She heard a few gasps of shock, but she didn't dare to turn around. She was too petrified to turn around. She felt her heart beating so fast, it was almost breaking her ribcage. She even heard her own pulse.

"P-Phillip?" She stammered after what appeared to be hours, even though just a few seconds passed.

"Phillip." Pop repeated. As if she was blind, he pointed a pencil in his direction, at the back of the class. She barely managed to swivel in her seat and catch eye of Phillip, who must have been feeling the same thing as her, except the fear part. He stood there, without moving, a surprised expression on his face.

"Your subject will be circulation: the heart and the blood."

She noticed that Phillip's expression radically changed, because he seemed void of emotion, like his mind was erased for a moment.

Then his features suddenly roughened as he furrowed his brow, baring his teeth into a grin that made her blood freeze in her veins.

She was so doomed.

...

Review please?


	2. Flipping out

**Author's note: **In this story, Flippy's personality is not as exaggerated as in the show. He's just a teenager who has social issues and… another kind of issues, as well. You'll see what I'm talking about. I'm trying to make it realistic so that means he won't murder everyone in sight like he does in the cartoon.

Once again, I will remind you their human names:

Cuddles-Cody; Giggles- Ginger;

Toothy- Thomas; Lumpy- Liam;

Flippy- Phillip; Flaky- Flaker;

Petunia - Petunia; Handy- Hayden;

Sniffles- Stanley; Nutty- Nathan;

Mime- Mike; Mole- Malcolm;

Pop- Porter; Cub- Corbin;

Lifty and Shifty- Luke and Shane; Russell- Russell;

Disco Bear- David Brian; Splendid- Spencer;

Lammy- Lana; Cro-Marmot- Cormac;

**Warning: **The story contains inappropriate language, violence and other T/M rated stuff.

…

She had been wrong. Not half of the school made a big fuss over the fact that Phillip stared and smiled at her. No.

The _entire_ school was talking about it. Plus, since Pop assigned them both to work on the same essay, the new rumor spread like lice through the whole student population.

Some claimed that they were sure Flaker Thorn was going to be Phillip Phren's new victim. They even made bets about how he was going to murder her and that determined Flaker's nightmares to return in full force. She even stopped sleeping at night and jittered every time someone addressed to her, hence she was always tired and sleepy during classes and the teachers always made observations about her unstable condition, telling her to drink coffee so that she could stop yawning all the time.

Her friends were so careful with her, it was like they were afraid not to break her, but she was aware that they were talking about her when they thought she wasn't listening.

The next day, after she had heard a part of their conversation, she stopped behind a corner, on the halls, and continued to listen to it, even though she shouldn't have done it because it deranged her even more.

She was heading to her Biology class, when she recognized Cody's voice mentioning her name, then stopped and hid so that she could pick up more of what he was telling the others. He seemed to be angry.

"Shut the hell up, nuthead!" He yelled at someone. She guessed it was Nathan, because Cody usually called him like that, when he was furious. "Flaker is not going to be murdered. How can people believe such stupid, childish stories?"

"Well, I don't believe them either," Petunia answered him. "I'm sure they say that just to get attention. These kids are so bored with their lives, really." Flaker could almost see her rolling her eyes.

"Well, I don't know if the rumors are real or not, but I won't sit at your lunch table anymore if Flaker doesn't leave. Seriously, I don't want to have any connection to that freaky dude." Nathan said then he sounded like he was slurping a juice or something full of sugar. Those were the only type of drinks he could consume.

Flaker couldn't hear anything for a few seconds, so she guessed they just stopped talking, after Nathan's last remark, thinking about it. She hugged her books close to her chest and sighed downcast. They were going to leave her alone. If they said they didn't believe the rumors, then why did they want to kick her out of their group? Why were they going to abandon her in the claws of the beast?

Okay, the last thought was a little exaggerated, but, still, Phillip scared her like hell.

"You're a jerkface." She heard Thomas grumble to Nathan then a loud bang resonated through the halls, followed by Nathan mumbling an 'ouch' and yelling after them, calling them 'traitors'. She assumed Thomas pushed him into a locker, hence the loud noise.

She waited a few seconds then bent forward and peeked over the corner, only to see the hall empty. They probably went to class, but she didn't hurry to follow them. She was grateful for her friends' loyalty, but she felt a little sorry about Nathan's decision. She had thought he was her friend too, but it appeared that it wasn't like that after all. Or perhaps that was in his nature, just like it was in the Smuggler twins' nature, as well.

She dragged herself to the biology laboratory and sensed her heart starting to beat fast again. That day was the day. The day when they had to sit in the same desk with the partners they were going to write the essays with. The day when she was going to be forced to look at him and talk to him and… and…

She felt a sharp pain in her head and rubbed it with her trembling hand. She exhaled and tried to calm down. It wasn't real. He wasn't really a murderer, the kids just laughed at her, because they knew she was a chicken. Not really a chicken, thank goodness, cause then she would have a stroke and die of terror.

She opened the classroom's door and scanned it carefully, noting that most students were already sitting with their partners.

Cody and Ginger had been lucky, due to the fact that they got paired off and the same could be applied for Thomas, who was sitting with Spencer, one of his best friends. Petunia wasn't in the same situation, she was actually unhappy with her partner, Mike, her old boyfriend, because they hadn't been on good terms since they broke up, but Flaker realized that she was still the one who got the worse. She finally looked at the back of the class and noticed Phillip, sitting there emotionless.

"Flaker, are you going to sit down or you just like to be admired?" Pop snapped her out of her reverie and motioned her to take a seat next to Phillip. She hesitated a moment, before she started walking towards his desk and she felt that the more she approached him, the more her body trembled. The others noticed it, as well, and some of them chuckled meanly. She heard the Smuggler twins whispering between them, but she couldn't perceive what they were saying.

Someone grabbed her arm on her way there; she looked down and saw Ginger smiling confidently at her.

"Don't worry, Flaky." She muttered, "He's a weirdo, not a serial killer." She giggled in her specific manner and winked at her. Flaker gave her a tentative smile then walked until she reached his desk and sat as far away as she could from him. She almost fell off her chair at first then moved an inch closer and felt sweat starting to form on her forehead.

"Uh… hello?" She heard his confused voice, but didn't dare to look at him. He was too close to look at him. He was going to hypnotize her and trap her with his glare. He was going to allure her and make her follow him in a dark corner, on a dark street, after classes, and he would strangle her or stab her or… whatever she heard the other kids talk behind her back. Or he was going to flip out and none of those options appealed to her. Or maybe he was going to do both, which was even worse.

Flaker heard shuffling coming from his direction and sensed that he got closer. She shuddered and looked at him for a brief second, giving a short 'hi', then she quickly averted her eyes. She saw him frown in her peripheral vision, but he didn't say anything to her anymore. He just turned to the teacher, who explained to them various things related to their essays.

Flaker sighed in relief and ignored him for a good part of their class, starting to relax.

Maybe he wasn't that bad. He really seemed into the lesson and she was somewhat baffled, because she didn't imagine him to be so studious. If she thought better, he read books quite often. He would probably have better grades than her, if he didn't get into detention so often and she felt a pang of envy at the thought, but she also felt sympathy, even though he didn't deserve it. It was his fault that he got in trouble and that he acted like a maniac sometimes.

But what if she was wrong? What if her friends were wrong? What if Nathan and those twins were right?

Her thoughts went haywire again, sending chills down her spine and creating a total chaos in her mind. She could be paranoid, after all.

Oh god, what if she was going _insane_?

"Each pair will make a dissection on a subject and will present it along with a written paper." Pop's voice invaded her ears. "This will be the essay. Most subjects will be frogs, but some of you will receive fishes or lab rats. There will be special utensils like the dissection knife, but not too sharp because people may get hurt." At this, Pop lifted a small, sharp-pointed, silver knife.

A loud noise was heard; Flaker leapt horrified and fell off her chair, screeching, as the other students turned their heads towards the source of the sound, taken aback. She shook her head dizzily and looked up to see Phillip looking straight ahead, unmoving like a statue, his face blank. It was a weird sight.

He appeared to be shocked or something and Flaker noticed that he had made the earlier noise by pushing his books off the desk, because they were scattered on the floor.

He suddenly grinned, showing his teeth, which were unusually sharp, and pointed at the teacher rudely.

"I love knives." He spoke in a mocking voice and Pop furrowed his brow as he realized that Phillip was making fun of him.

"Mr. Phren, I don't think you want to end up in detention again."

He laughed derisively at the teacher and dug his hand into a pocket at the back of his army patterned pants. All Flaker saw was a blur, literally, and with a 'Whoosh', a pointy object was in hand. A huge one. It wasn't even a knife, it was more like a goddamn sword.

"Mine is bigger!" He sing-songed, then stopped and studied the blade's cutting part. "And I'm not referring just to the knife, you know." He grinned even wider, if that was possible.

Some kids gasped, others choked in shock, but most of them, remained petrified at the sight. Flaker crawled on her knees on the floor, as far away from him as she could, almost crying in fear. She felt like she pissed herself, but, fortunately, it was just her imagination.

Pop dropped the dissection knife and his jaw almost fell to the floor. He appeared outraged.

"Oh my god!" He hollered. "Where did you get that from?"

Phillip ignored his question and kept on smiling.

"I know. You're all impressed. But this is no time for fun cause we're discussing dissection and dissection is important." They didn't know if he was serious or just sarcastic, but he slid the blade back into his pocket- it was actually more like some sort of special support for it- and Flaker wondered how no one saw that gruesome thing.

Pop seemed to come to his senses to some extent and cleaned the sweat off his face with the back of his hand. Everyone still stared with their mouths wide open at Phillip, but he didn't appear to realize the gravity of the thing he had just done. He usually just swore and mocked the teacher when he was flipping out, but this time he had crossed the line.

Like, _really_ crossed the line.

Flaker whimpered when she remembered that she would have to sit down next to him eventually, but the bell suddenly rang, announcing the end of the class. She collapsed on the floor again, with relief.

Pop pulled his own collar nervously and adjusted his voice.

"Phillip Phren, follow me to the director."

Phillip's gaze appeared hazy for a moment then he shook his head and looked around confused.

"Huh...? What?" He paused and stared at the rest of the students with wide eyes. He finally turned to Mr. Porter, who was glaring at him. "Why?"

"Don't act like you don't know!" Pop snapped and motioned Phillip to follow him.

The teen grumbled annoyed, sat up and existed the classroom, leaving the rest of the kids bewildered and still in shock. Flaker stood up and blinked several times.

"Holy crap, what a freak." One of the twins mumbled in front of her.

…

Flaker was really disappointed when she found out that Phillip hadn't been expelled. He had just received a detention and a warning. That was all. She couldn't believe that she had to make that stupid assignment with him and that the teachers still let him inside the school, despite that he had brought a dangerous object and swished it around like some kind of toy. He could have killed someone with it and he wouldn't have cared. He was a social menace.

She almost cried when she thought about it. She sniffed. She was so absorbed into her misery that she didn't notice the soda can at her feet and stumbled, dropping her books to the pavement. She swore and hit the can, furious. Sometimes she believed that bad luck was laced to her.

Flaker bent and stretched her arm, intending to grab one of the books, but someone reached it before her and she noticed that the hand that grabbed it was dressed into one of those fingerless, black gloves that rockers usually wore them. She looked intently at it and remained frozen when she realized who that hand belonged to. The hand shook the book in front of her eyes, trying to catch her attention.

"Flaker, you dropped your books." He told her, but she didn't raise her eyes and kept staring at his hand.

"Flaker?"

Nope, she still didn't raise her eyes; she couldn't look at him. She started trembling and swallowed greedily, even though there was nothing to swallow. The hand gave up at trying to catch her attention and disappeared from her visual field, leaving her to stare at the pavement. She heard noises and she guessed that he was gathering the rest of her books, but she didn't move from her spot.

She was alone, on an empty street with him, and he was scaring the hell out of her.

The worse part? It was already evening.

_Night _came after evening.

His hands holding her books entered her visual field again and she stared at them in a messed up way. He probably thought she was the weird one at that moment, but she couldn't help it. She was terrified of him. They stood in silence for a few moments. She could hear ruckus and cars honking, far away, in the city, and she wondered why her parents decided to move in such a creepy, silent neighborhood, that fuelled her fears even more.

He sighed and pushed her books into her arms, making her stagger and give a short squeak in fear. She slowly lifted her eyes and observed that he had a dejected expression on his face, which surprised and calmed her a little.

"T-t-thank you." Flaker stuttered and turned, decided to walk far, far away from him, but he grabbed her arm and stopped her, ruining her plans. She whimpered when she felt his tight clutch and he backed away quickly.

"Look," Phillip started, "I know," He paused, measuring his words carefully, "I know I have a bad reputation in that school, but we have to write our assignment. So, can't you just forget about it for a week and stop acting like I'm going to eat you or something?" He stared and she noticed that his eyes were an eerie green color that intimidated her.

She inhaled deeply and concentrated on her words.

"Sorry." She muttered. "I'm-I'm-"

"Paranoid." He finished for her.

She nodded.

"Ye-" Then she realized what he had actually said. "N-no." She widened her eyes and scrunched up her nose. "No, I'm not paranoid, I'm just, y-you know… afraidofyou." She said the last part in a hurried breath and smiled uneasily when he raised his eyebrows.

"That's not new for me. You'll have to defeat your fear or phobia or whatever it is so that you can actually think when I'm standing next to you."

Her smile suddenly dropped and she felt offended.

"I didn't know I looked so stupid." She looked down, avoiding his eyes. She heard him exhale in a long, deep breath and she became aware of the fact that he was quite apprehensive around her and it was strange, because he was calm and collected most of the time. Well, when he didn't act like a psychotic jerk, actually. She couldn't understand how he could be so calm and polite in some moments and so wacky and spiteful in others.

Damn, he was weird.

"I didn't mean that." Phillip stated, scratching the back of his head. "You have to loosen up or we'll both fail at biology. I know I don't seem to care about school, but I do care, trust me." She saw anger in his eyes for a fraction of a second, but it disappeared as soon as it appeared, and it startled her.

"S-so, I think we should share the responsibilities." Flaker spoke, an idea coming to her mind. "I will write the first part, about the heart and how it functions, and you will complete the essay and write the part about the blood and the circulation. That way, we won't spend too much time together and it will be easier for both of us, heh, heh." She smiled and waited for his answer, but she gulped when she saw his strange expression. "So, you agree, right?"

His gaze was unfocused and he was staring at her weirdly. In fact, he wasn't even looking at her. It was like he was looking… through her, like he didn't even see her anymore. He mumbled something and she perceived the word 'blood', but he shook his head and his gaze became clear again.

He suddenly took something from his pocket, something that appeared to be a white pill, and swallowed it. Flaker made a few steps backwards, feeling the fear creeping under her skin.

"W-what was t-that?" She asked, her voice quivering. She coughed, trying not to sound too scared.

He turned his head and looked at her like he was seeing her for the first time.

"Uh, just… a menthol pill."

He gave her an uptight, strange smile and she frowned confused.

"I have to go." He drawled. She noticed that his right eye was twitching, like he was nervous, and she wondered if she had said something that angered him. He walked away in a hurry and she let him go, without saying anything, then she realized that he didn't answer her question.

Great, that meant she would have to discuss with him about their essay the next day, and she wasn't in the mood to do it again.

A girl screamed a few houses away and Flaker yelped terrified. It was already late and she hadn't gotten home yet. That was bad. Her neighborhood was horrifying, especially at night, and people rarely passed through it. She looked around, checking the surroundings; no one was in sight. It was safe for her to walk, at the moment.

When the girl screamed again, Flaker didn't even have second thoughts.

She just ran.


	3. A green teddy bear

**Warning:** The story contains violence, inappropriate language, sexual scenes and other T/M rated stuff.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Happy Tree Friends. Unfortunately.

…

The school's sports hall was quaking from so much noise created by the students who came to assist at the handball game for girls, the last semifinal in the first semester.

Flaker managed to score a few goals and the team appreciated her a lot, because she was one of the most important pieces. Perhaps the most important at that moment, because the other girl, who was as good as her, was home, sick. The coach didn't let her out of his sight and he made her return on the playing field every time Flaker wanted to switch places with someone else, to rest.

She felt exhaustion reach her and she received a few balls in the head because of this, which made her dizzy. When the coach noticed this, he blew into his whistle and called her on the reserve bench, offering her a short break, but not before he warned her that she had to enter the game again, in a few minutes, because she was their chance at winning.

"Just ten minutes, Thorn!" He told her, scowling, then he concentrated his attention on the game and threw some indications at a girl.

Flaker sat on the bench situated at the edge of the hall, next to Ginger, who had her arms crossed and pouted.

"That's not fair." Ginger told her, watching Petunia, who received a ball in the head, just like Flaker. "Why do I always have to be one of the reserves? The coach never lets me enter the game."

Flaker shrugged and opened her mouth to comfort her, but Ginger didn't let her do that.

"It's not necessary, Flaky. I know I'm not good at handball. I suck." She sighed and rested her elbows on her knees. Flaker threw her a sympathetic look and leapt when she heard someone's voice yelling something.

When the handball match for girls took place, the guys always gathered on the benches and followed the game with a particular interest. Some of them shouted and whistled after the players, which earned them dangerous looks and all kinds of obscene signs from the girls.

Someone whistled provocatively.

"Woo-hoo run, babies! Run for daddy!"

Ginger and Flaker turned around and saw David Brian and Nathan jumping enthusiastically, while they were eating popcorn. Cody, Thomas, Spencer and Russell were next to them, grinning happily at the girls who were running on the field.

"Come on, little Petunia, move it, show what you can!" Nathan shouted.

Petunia threw him an angry look and raised her middle finger.

"Fuck you, Gobbet!" She yelled. Nathan smirked and the other guys laughed loudly.

Petunia ran towards the edge and sat next to Flaker, taking a big gulp of water from a bottle.

"What an asshole." She growled and wiped her mouth with her hand. "I should make Hayden give him a good beating, to put him in his place."

Flaker and Ginger looked at each other and chuckled.

"He just likes you." Flaker said.

"Yeah, him and half of the high school. I'm sick of him, you know? He does some pretty nasty stuff. For example, he left our group just because Pop made you work on the same assignment with Flippy." She looked at Flaker and shook her head. "You poor thing."

Flaker rolled her eyes.

"Would you cut it out? Everyone feels sorry for me because they know I'm a coward. I've had it. This is my nature and I have to conform with it." She sighed.

"No, no, I didn't mean this. Excepting the fact that…" Petunia gaped at Flaker carefully, "you are afraid of most things, frankly, it must be pretty hard to have that guy as partner. He really is dangerous. I mean, come on, he brought a _sword _in the school. What. The. Heck." She narrowed her eyes, thoughtful. "But, seriously, if he wasn't so freaky and messed up, I would so have gone for him." Petunia smiled and Ginger giggled amused. Flaker made a face.

"Really?"

"You know what, he really is cute." Ginger interfered. "Yeah, he really is cute."

Flaker furrowed her brow.

"Well, I can't even think if he's cute or not. All that comes to my mind when I think about him is: fear."

Her friends laughed.

"We have expected this." Ginger defended herself when Flaker looked at them offended. "Actually, I really wonder, Flaky, are you afraid of all guys? Because, since I know you, you've never liked anyone."

Ginger threw her a wondering look and Flaker could feel Petunia's curious gaze on her. She felt pressured and stammered.

"T-that's because I can't think of having a boyfriend right now. I have better things to do."

"Like what?" Petunia asked her. "You're 17, for god's sake. This is the perfect age to have fun."

"School is much more important than-"

"We've just spoken of the wolf and the wolf is at the door." Ginger interrupted their conversation, gawking astonished at something. Or someone. Petunia and Flaker turned their stares in the direction the pink-haired girl was looking and saw Phillip standing at the sports hall's entrance, on the other side.

Flaker remarked that many persons looked in that direction with surprised expressions on their faces. Some of those persons were the boys and a few girls who were playing. The coach yelled at them to pay attention to the game.

Phillip motioned Flaker to come and called her name, which attracted even the coach's attention.

"Well I'll be damned." Petunia murmured amazed. "He called you with all these people around."

Flaker exclaimed and covered her mouth with her palm.

"I'm not going."

The other two girls looked at her scandalized.

"Are you out of your mind? He called you. If you're not going, he'll probably get revenge on you or something." Petunia admonished her.

"Yeah. And he'll probably call you when you will be alone somewhere, if you're not going now. You're safe. He won't do anything to you, not in front of all the students." Ginger spoke.

Flaker shook her head fervently, almost desperate.

"No, I won't. My fear will make me trip and I'll embarrass myself." She gulped.

She looked at him and saw that he was calm. In fact, he was smiling. Flaker realized that was the third time he smiled at her, in the last two days.

Petunia patted her on her back.

"Go, silly. We were just joking, he is not going to do anything to you."

She sat up trembling and tried to prolong the time by walking as slowly as possible. Many stared at her like she was crazy and like she wanted to commit suicide and that frightened her even more. When she finally reached him, he was still smiling and he greeted her happily, which weirded her out.

"W-what do y-you want?" She knew she was rude, but she didn't want to talk to him. Actually, she didn't want to be within 10 feet of him, but she didn't have a choice. Her rudeness didn't seem to phase him, because he kept smiling.

"I called you to tell you to meet me after classes."

Flaker blinked.

"…What?"

"For the essay. Remember?"

She inhaled deeply, trying to calm herself.

"I told you yesterday. We will write different parts of the essay separately so that we won't have to meet each other. " She bit her lip when she noticed that he didn't appear to agree with her decision.

"We have to write it together." He said, piercing her with his green eyes that made Flaker's legs slacken. "If we'll write it separately, it can become a mess. If one of us makes mistakes, the other can correct him, that's why both of us have to be present when we write something."

He smiled hopefully at her, which reminded Flaker of the smile that Stanley gave her, when he asked her if she wanted to be his partner. That made her wonder about… certain things.

No, it wasn't possible. He didn't like her. Maybe there were some clues that indicated that he had a crush on her, like the fact that he smiled most of the time when he was around her or that he was somewhat nervous in her presence or because he really wanted to write the essay with her… but he was Phillip Phren. Flippy. Those things could mean anything when it was him.

Maybe he did them because he wanted to trick her, to make her believe that he was nice, when he was secretly planning the way he was going to kill her.

That was indeed possible.

Flaker returned to reality and observed he didn't smile anymore. In fact, he was kinda sullen, like he was sorry because she didn't want to write the assignment with him.

But she couldn't spend so much time with him. Not alone, anyway.

She thought about an alternative that would be a convenience for both of them.

"Very well." She muttered. "But we will meet only in public places."

He snorted.

"Yeah, okay. I knew you were usually afraid of many things, but I didn't know it was so serious." Flaker spotted sarcasm in his voice and she deadpanned.

"That's me. If you're not okay with it, then we'll both fail at biology, just like you said."

She realized that her voice sounded bold and that she wasn't so scared of him anymore. Especially with so many people around them. But the fear would have probably returned if she was alone with him. He was like the dark. If she sat alone in the dark, she would be scared shitless, terrified, but if there were other persons with her, the fear would diminish.

"Fine. What's on your mind?" He asked her.

"The school's library. After classes."

He nodded in agreement and smiled again.

"Thorn! Go back on the field! Your time has expired!" The coach's voice echoed in the entire hall, making her jump.

She threw Phillip one last look, before she returned and entered the game. Petunia was already there and gave Flaker a smile filled with subtext.

"You talked something, no kiddin'." She teased her. "See? I told you he wasn't going to rape you."

Flaker choked and cringed.

"You didn't say anything about rape." She mumbled, sweating. Another horrible idea implanted in her head. Super.

"I did now." Petunia snickered. "I'm just messing with you, Flaky. Don't take anything seriously."

Petunia caught the ball and passed it to other girl. Flaker stared at the air for a few moments, wide eyed.

If her friends knew she agreed to meet Flippy after classes, their faces would fall off.

…

Flaker passed through the mass of students that was exiting hurriedly the school's gates. She heard laughs and words. Some exclaimed and made plans for the weekend, while they were heading towards their homes.

She remained near her locker and pretended to read something so that she wouldn't attract attention. She didn't want people to know that she was staying after classes to meet Phillip.

"Flaky!"

The girl clenched her jaw tensioned and turned to see Cody and Thomas approaching her.

"Heh, hello." She scrunched her features, trying to smile, but the two boys noticed her uneasiness.

"Is there something wrong?" Cody asked suspicious.

Flaker shook her head, a little too fast.

"No, everything is alright." She gabbled, avoiding their gazes.

They seemed to accept her excuse, because they changed the subject to her relief.

"So, I was thinking about it…" Cody began, "We're free this afternoon. Wanna go to the skateboarding contest?"

Flaker deflated, with a gloomy look on her face. She loved skateboarding, but she couldn't go with them. She tried to find another excuse, as quickly as possible.

"I'm sorry, guys. I can't. I, um, promised my parents that I'll go visit, uh, my grandma today. Yeah, my grandma."

Cody and Thomas grimaced.

"Aww. You were our last hope." Thomas spoke disappointed. "Ginger and Petunia never want to go. And you know what's their excuse? 'Girls don't go to such places, you should know this already.'" He mimicked Petunia, in a high pitched voice.

Cody laughed and Flaker smiled.

"Apparently, that didn't stop you." Thomas grinned at her.

"Well, see ya, Flaky." Cody gave her a friendly pat on her shoulder then left along with Thomas.

Flaker sighed a little more relaxed. She searched the surroundings and observed that it was alright for her to go to the library.

She started walking so fast that she didn't see Mr. Malcolm, the janitor, and bumped into him, making both of them fall to the ground. She apologized and helped him stand up and gather his things. She felt small trickles of sweat on her face.

It was pretty late and it was possible that there wasn't anyone at the library anymore, especially since it was Friday afternoon.

Flaker entered there quietly and saw Mrs. Pigot, the woman who supervised that place, standing on a chair in a corner, reading something. There were only two kids there, between the shelves.

Phillip was standing at one of the reading tables, his back turned to her. He appeared to read. She tensed and got closer to him, then she saw that he wasn't actually reading. He was drawing something.

"Hey." She murmured. "What's that?" She pointed at the paper he was drawing on. He frowned and grinned defying; he almost looked… _evil_.

Flaker shuddered.

"A green teddy bear. His name is Flippy." He tore the paper out of his notebook and pushed it towards her.

Flaker widened her eyes in surprise and stared at him.

"F-Flippy?" She gave a tentative laugh. "Where did you get that name from?"

He knew. He knew that the other kids mocked him behind his back. He knew they called him like that. And he knew that she knew.

She didn't even see him when he leapt up from his chair. He was suddenly towering over her, his hands balled into fists. "I KNOW! DON'T YOU THINK I DON'T? I_ DO_!" He screamed like a madman. "OR ARE YOU THAT STUPID, YOU PARANOID BITCH!"

He stared at her for what seemed like forever. She was petrified. Without breath. She felt the tears streaming down her face.

"What's going on there?" The library woman looked at them, frowning. Phillip grinned for a moment, showing his sharp teeth.

"Nothing, you ancient statue." He insulted her.

The librarian widened her eyes, vexed, and threatened him that she was going to kick him out, but he ignored her.

He was in his flipped out mode, Flaker could tell. And he was having one of his horrific fits.

Flaker burst into tears and he shook his head, looking at her like nothing happened. He pulled out a small box from his bag and swallowed a bunch of pills, then he calmed down and took his place. Flaker remained on her feet, silently crying and trembling wildly.

"Are you going to sit down or not?" He asked her through his teeth, calmer than before, even though he was still seething with fury. She wiped her tears with her sleeve and stood stiff as a board, afraid to move, after she sat in her chair.

An hour and a half, how much it lasted until they wrote a part of the essay, she didn't utter a word.

In fact, she just listened to him, while he was telling her what to write. Her hand trembled madly and he snapped at her a few times, telling her to control herself. When he asked her if she agreed with what they were writing, she just nodded. Actually, she couldn't even concentrate on what he was saying due to the terror that dominated her.

She only heard pieces of words and she remarked that he was telling her a big part of the lesson from his head. He wasn't reading after some other book, he just knew the lesson by heart and it impressed her.

She wondered how come he knew so much about the human anatomy. He knew even the smallest detail and, when he mentioned words like 'blood' or 'heart', he was taking those weird pills and ate them like they were candies.

Flaker was sure that those weren't menthol pills.

After they finished, he seemed to have returned to normal because he joyously told her goodbye.

"See you Monday." He smiled, then took his dark green backpack and went out the door.

Flaker felt like she was going to puke from the stress. She clenched her fist and realized that she was holding his crumpled drawing.

No, he wasn't one of her biggest nightmares.

He was her biggest nightmare.


	4. Mental Instability

**Warning:** The story contains violence, inappropriate language and sexual innuendos. And this chapter contains even more of these, than the previous ones.

**Disclaimer: **Nope, I'm not the creator of the Happy Tree Friends.

…

The next days were horrible. Flaker stood inside her room, like a caged animal, the entire weekend. She was depressed. Her dreams were unbearable.

She had never had more horrific dreams than those in her entire life. In most of them she was followed by Phillip, on some empty, dark streets. She was running and he usually had a big knife in his hand or a rope that he wanted to strangle her with.

What freaked her mostly were his eyes. They didn't have their normal green color, it was more like a fluorescent green that shone in the dark.

Then, there was the other type of dreams that weren't like the ones Flaker usually had. Those weren't nightmares, they were stranger and not that scary.

Due to Petunia's words, Flaker dreamt that he was…_ raping_ her. It wasn't the standard kind of rape, it was shaking and disturbing and it involved blood, knives and other sharp things, which made her wake into a pool of sweat.

The weirdest part was that Flaker actually enjoyed them and that scared her even more.

She wasn't a masochist after all.

Monday, she decided that she wasn't capable of going to school, so she spent almost the entire day in bed. She faked that she was sick and told her parents that she didn't feel well, so that they wouldn't make her go to classes.

Her mother was worried at first and insisted to call a doctor, but Flaker assured her that there was nothing serious and that it wasn't necessary. She only wanted to rest because she was exhausted.

She was lying on her bed in the afternoon, when someone knocked at her bedroom's door. Her mother entered and watched her worried.

"Flaker, are you feeling better?" She asked.

She nodded weakly and pretended that she was still weary. She didn't like to lie to her parents, but desperate times demanded desperate measures.

"You have a guest." Her mother announced her. The girl widened her eyes and stood up.

"Who is it?"

"Your friend, Ginger."

Flaker loosened and exhaled a little disappointed. Wait. Why was she disappointed?

It wasn't like she expected_ him_ to come visit her. Not after the whole trauma he had provoked her. They weren't even friends and she was thinking about these ridiculous things. He probably didn't even know where she lived.

No, she didn't want to see him. She swallowed heavily. Maybe she was becoming obsessed with him. Or maybe she was becoming obsessed with the idea of him.

That would be a sick obsession.

Ginger's pink hair showed up at the door. She smiled at Flaker then she assured Mrs. Thorn that her daughter was safe with her. Her mother nodded and went out, leaving them alone.

"What's going on, Flaky?" Ginger approached her bed and sat on the edge. "Why didn't you come to school today?"

Flaker didn't look at her; she just continued to stare at the ceiling, while she was lying flat on her back. Ginger frowned and dragged the sheets off her.

"Everyone is worried at school. When Nathan saw that you didn't come today, he started talking about how you were killed. The Smuggler twins helped him spread this rumor and Cody and Thomas had a pretty good fight with them because of this."

She turned her head on the pillow and looked at Ginger with tears in her eyes.

"He scared me terribly, Ginge." She wailed.

Ginger enlarged her eyes, appalled.

"Flippy?" She inquired and Flaker nodded in confirmation.

"Please, don't tell anyone, but… I met him Friday, in the afternoon, and he had one of his fits. He yelled at me and acted like an escaped psycho." She sniffled and covered her face with the sheets. Ginger grabbed them slowly and uncovered her. Flaker noticed that she was furious.

"That's it. I'll talk to Mr. Porter to change your partner. You can't face this, Flaky."

She whimpered.

"No, don't do it. Phillip will be angry with me. What if he kills me?"

Ginger threw her arms in the air in irritation.

"Stop it! No one will kill you. You can't go on like this."

"Maybe I can. Maybe I will manage to defeat my fear…"

Ginger threw her a dry look.

"You have never been able to defeat your fears. I don't get it how you will do it now."

They gazed at each other; Flaker groaned.

"Fine. I'll talk to Pop tomorrow." She stated.

…

"No." Pop spoke, scowling decided at the two girls. "I can't change the partners."

Flaker deflated and looked down somber. Ginger pursed her lips and opened her mouth daringly, trying to convince him.

"But Mr. Porter-"

"I said no. That's my final decision. I regret this, Flaker, but I've told you all since the beginning that you are not in the position to choose or change your own partners." He looked regretfully at her then motioned them to get out of his office. Ginger threw him a dirty look when he turned his back to them; she grabbed her friend's wrist and dragged her out. When they got out on the school's hall, she hugged her shortly.

"I'm so sorry, Flaky." She intended to cheer her up.

"That's ok."

The bell rang and they departed sorrowful. Ginger had English and Flaker went towards the computers laboratory, to the Informatics class.

When she got to the first floor, she saw Stanley who was heading towards the same classroom. She tried to hide behind a group of students; she didn't want him to see her because he would ask her if she wanted to be his computer partner and Flaker didn't have any intention to spend an entire hour hearing him babbling about his major passion for electronics.

And how she was so kind, she couldn't refuse him because she would make him feel bad and then she would feel bad, too. That was why she couldn't stand that class. Because she had never refused Stanley.

It was better if he didn't notice her. That was the best solution. She realized that she had lost him and she looked around worriedly. Perhaps he got to class.

"Flaker!"

She leapt in the air and looked behind her to see Stanley waving at her. How did he get there?

"I wanted to surprise you so I turned around and walked behind you."

So that was the explanation. Sometimes she believed he really was desperate.

"Heh, heh, you took me by surprise." She contorted her features, trying to smile when Stanley put his arm around her shoulders, making her flinch. She really disliked when someone touched her. Especially someone with Stanley's intentions. She clenched her teeth and gave him a fake grin.

"So, uh, do you want to be my lab partner?"

Of course he asked the question just like always. Flaker sighed and nodded resigned and Stanley smiled enthusiastically.

"Great!"

And that was how she spent half an hour staring at a white, luminous screen and listened without wanting what was the difference between Windows 98 and Windows XP. And that wasn't from the professor, but from Stanley, who was talking in her ear, blocking out the teacher's voice, who was explaining to them various things about the lesson from the respective day. If she failed informatics, she would blame Stanley.

If he liked her that didn't mean he had the right to bother her with his constant gibberish, but he didn't realize the fact that he was bothering her and Flaker was too restrained to tell him that.

She started shaking her leg in nervousness and looked at the clock on the wall. Only 25 minutes. Too much time. She didn't have the patience to wait so long. The teacher was speaking to them. She saw his mouth moving, but she couldn't hear him.

It was like she was choking from so much fervor and it was driving her crazy. She pulled her collar and tried to flutter it so that she could chill herself, but it wasn't enough. She shouldn't have taken that thick sweater; it was still October.

Flaker couldn't stand the pressure anymore and stood up in a move. Stanley stopped talking, taken aback, and the teacher looked at her bewildered.

"Yes, miss Thorn. What do you want?"

"Will you excuse me, please? I would like to go to the bathroom."

The teacher nodded and made her a sign to get out in silence. Flaker tried to walk without deranging the others, but, as usually, she stumbled and made a fool out of herself. She huffed when the others laughed, before she exited the classroom quickly. She was such a mess.

She couldn't understand why she felt so stressed out. It was probably her subconscious that was still traumatized from the last events connected to Phillip and to the nightmares she had had with him.

When she got to the bathroom, she washed her face with cold water a few times and breathed deeply, trying to calm down. She kept telling to herself that she wasn't paranoid. She wasn't paranoid, but she felt that even her inner voice was lying to her.

She gazed at the mirror and studied herself carefully. She wasn't quite beautiful. She was pretty, but she wasn't beautiful like Ginger or Petunia, even though her friends always told her that she was.

She had long, red hair and it was wild most of the time, while Ginger's hair was always neat and tame. Petunia was another story; she couldn't even talk about her; she was obsessed with her own image.

Her eyes were big and they had a banal color, a reddish brown, and she always wore blouses with sleeves longer than her arms, which reminded her of those abandoned kids that lived on the streets and dressed in clothes that were two numbers larger than them.

Flaker exhaled in a long, deep breath, in grief, and exited the bathroom. When she passed near the boys' bathroom, she heard a weird noise from inside and jumped scared. She intended to walk forward, to ignore the source of the noise, but her curiosity didn't let her.

She approached the door and listened carefully.

"Stay there, you monster!" A voice snapped and Flaker remarked that it was Phillip's voice. Her instinct told her to leave that place as soon as possible, but her curiosity still kept her in place. She had the sensation that she would get in trouble because of it.

"Shut the fuck up, pansy. You're of no use. I'm better than you." He growled. He was speaking to a phone, because no one answered him. Not someone that Flaker would hear anyway. That was why she assumed that he was talking to a mobile phone or something like that.

"No, I won't let you get out. Stay in there!" He suddenly spoke in a terrified voice. He growled like a wild animal and Flaker bit her nail nervously. The door was partially open and she decided to throw a peek.

She widened her eyes when she saw him bent over the sink, gripping its edges like he wanted to break them.

He didn't have any mobile in his hands. In fact, he was staring at the mirror while he concentrated on his own reflection. He suddenly grinned as he continued to look at his image.

"See, I'm better than you. I can control you." He pulled a face, disgusted. "You're pathetic."

His expression changed abruptly again and it became frightened.

"No! You're staying in there!" He spoke alarmed.

Holy fucking christ. He was speaking to _himself_.

Flaker's mouth fell in shock and she didn't realize that she opened the door by mistake that she was completely exposed. He saw her in the mirror and turned around with large and scared eyes.

"What are you doing here? Get out!" He yelled at her.

She couldn't move. She was so shocked that she froze in her place. He furrowed his brow and reached her in a few steps.

"Didn't you hear me? Get out until it's too late!"

He grasped her arm, trying to push her out of the bathroom, but suddenly stopped and stared at the air. It was like he _changed _somehow and turned into this malevolent thing; he widened his eyes and they got a strange glint, which made them look a lot like the ones from Flaker's nightmares. He suddenly grinned and his hands moved faster than she could see and before she could react they were clutching at her neck, suffocating.

He lifted her off the ground slightly so that her feet were only just touching the ground, then he threw her and pushed her into the wall as she screamed in horror. She looked up at him and screamed even louder when she saw him coming after her. He grabbed her by her collar and shook her. When Flaker tried to scream again, he covered her mouth with his hand, stopping her from making any noise, and narrowed his eyes dangerously.

"If you tell anyone what you've just seen in here, you're going to get it really, really bad. Got that?" He growled in her face. She felt tears filling her eyes and nodded shaking.

"Very good." He spoke to her like he was speaking to little kid that behaved well. "Now, when I'll let you go, I want you to stay quiet or else I'll kill you and your body will never be found. I can do that, you know."

She widened her eyes at his threat and turned into a stony replica by petrifaction. He shook her again and throttled her, trying to make her come to her senses.

"_Got that_?" He went up in volume and gritted his teeth. She nodded weakly and he released her carefully. As soon as he set her free, she stuck to the wall like she was trying to disappear through it and looked at him in terror.

He laughed wildly and stared at her in a messed up way.

"I can smell your fear." He spoke in a low voice that made her shiver visibly. He saw that and smirked in satisfaction.

Flaker started walking away slowly, but he dashed at her and grabbed her sweater, pushing her into a door that belonged to one of the bathroom stalls. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to cry out but all she could manage was a pitiful twitter.

"Where do you think you're going? I'm not finished with you yet."

"P-please l-let me g-go." She whimpered. Oh god, he was going to murder her. That was her end. She gave a choke, desperate.

He stared at her in fascination and kept on smirking in delight.

"No way. Not before I have my way with you."

He pushed into her and she could feel him through her skirt. She cried as he dug his fingers into her hair, grabbing a fistful of it, and pushed her head back.

Then he covered her mouth with his and kissed her. Flaker remained rigid and widened her eyes.

A noise was heard on the hall and he unstuck from her, looking at the door cautiously. They both saw the janitor and she felt a little better when Phillip backed away from her, but she was still horrified because she remembered that Mr. Malcolm was almost blind.

Phillip gave her a wicked grin as he walked towards the janitor and took his black glasses, throwing them to the floor and breaking them.

"My glasses! Who is there?" Mr. Malcolm looked around scared.

"What do you know, the blind dog can actually talk." Phillip commented with malice.

The janitor furrowed his brow and flung his white stick around.

"Phren! Is that you? You're in big trouble, you heard me, punk?"

Phillip's grin suddenly fell off.

"Fuck, I forgot he knows my voice."

He threw Flaker one last threatening look, before he slammed the bathroom door and disappeared on the hall.

She fell to the ground in shock.

He was batshit _insane_.

…

Her friends were watching her wondering, as she looked at the air and ate like a robot, without saying anything. They tried to catch her attention but none of them managed to make her speak. She just nodded and shook her head when they asked her questions, but most of the time she just didn't answer them. It was like she couldn't understand what they were telling her.

She was still in shock and all that came to her mind were images with him. She just couldn't stop thinking about what had happened; it was like a trance that he had induced her, like he had hypnotized her, because he was always on her mind. And not the fact that he was insane was what rattled her the most; probably because she had always known he was actually mad. Now he just confirmed her horrible hunches.

The fact that he kissed her after he acted like a madman brought her dejection and despair because it made her have feelings that she had never had before and it bothered her. She couldn't fall for a normal guy just like Ginger or Petunia.

She was falling for a psychopath.

Flaker banged her head on the table. She wanted to cry, but she couldn't do it there, in the middle of the cafeteria, where everyone was able to see her. She heard Nathan jabber at another table- probably Luke and Shane's table- and she knew that they were talking about how to create more mischief. Probably by spreading other rumors about her and Phillip.

He would have probably killed or raped her if the janitor hadn't come. That made her realize he didn't actually like her, even though he kissed her. It was just a sick game for him; he was a sadist and he enjoyed messing with her. He probably played mind games with his victims before he murdered them.

She grimaced and the others looked weirdly at her.

She couldn't tell anyone about him. She wondered how come no one had realized that he was a psycho until now and she knew that she was going to be buried six feet under the ground if she babbled a word. Even if other people found out about his mental instability, he would still probably get away with it.

Flaker hugged herself when a cold shiver engulfed her and she frowned thoughtful. For some unknown reason she really wanted to find out what his real problem was. She wanted to know why he was so insane.

And she knew that, because of that fucked up wish, she was going to be scarred and cursed for life.

…

You know what to do; review, review, review.


	5. The note

**A/N:** Hi there, folks, well I'm back for a new chapter of this story. Thanks a lot for the reviews.

**Disclaimer:** Nah, the Happy Tree Friends are not mine.

**Warning:** The story contains swearing, themes not very appropriate for children and some other T/M rated scenes.

...

Flaker looked at the huge, imposing house that was in front of her and hummed downcast.

If she had a backbone and took decisions by herself, she wouldn't have been there. Especially since it was the middle of the week and she didn't use to go to parties or 'drink and have fun' collegial reunions during the week; even more if one of those parties took place at one of her friends' home.

She gaped around her and observed many cars parked in front of the house; she could guess that most guests arrived in those cars and she knew for sure that one of them – precisely the bright orange, convertible one- belonged to David Brian, who came there just for 'the hot chicks', as he always said.

She felt sick only she thought about it.

Flaker didn't usually like parties, but Petunia insisted so much that her head almost exploded, so she gave in to the pressure and finally accepted, receiving Petunia's bone crushing hug, which irked her like hell.

She didn't even dress properly. She came with the same clothes she had worn that day at school- a knee skirt and a blouse with long sleeves, of course, both red. Even her schoolbag was still with her, because she had spent her entire afternoon in the library, after classes.

She was still feeling sore- mentally and physically- after the whole ordeal with Phillip from the previous day and she even discovered a few bruises after the molestation she had received from him, which alarmed her and gave her another set of vivid nightmares and rape dreams.

She avoided her friends the entire day; or almost the entire day, until Ginger and Petunia cornered her and asked her questions in suspicion, making her invent all kinds of lies to convince them that she was ok.

When, in fact, she wasn't ok. She didn't feel ok at all and she was much more attentive to everything than before, which she didn't think it was possible and it made her wonder if the others were actually right about her.

If she had a paranoia disorder.

After everything that had happened she wouldn't be surprised if that feeling amplified so much until the point where it would become a serious problem for her, which could disturb her way of thinking.

Concerning Phillip, she had noticed him obviously. Actually, the whole day she had been conscious of his presence, wherever he was, whether it was the classroom, the cafeteria, the schoolyard or even the bathroom, and she knew that she really was becoming obsessed.

Flaker was always making sure that she wasn't going within many feet of him and that he wasn't following her or looking at her. She hid every time she realized that he was about to pass near her on the school halls. She even checked the bathroom stalls when she went to the toilet and she realized that, if she had been afraid of him before, it was nothing compared to what was happening to her that day.

It was like her fear of him _controlled _her. Actually, it was more like fear and fascination at the same time and she felt stupid for having an obsession like that.

To her relief and disappointment- a mixed feeling-, he didn't even throw her a look the whole day. He acted like nothing happened a day before, like she didn't even exist.

Just like the time before the day Pop assigned them to work on the same project.

She doubted if any of them was going to pass Biology that semester because she didn't know if she was capable of working with him anymore.

That was why, when she got out of the school library until she arrived in front of that house, she looked around at least five times to see if someone followed her.

She was so fucked up.

The girl heard the infernal noise from the inside and asked herself what she was doing there. She didn't belong there. She wanted to turn back, when someone opened the door, letting the uproar envelop her. She raised her eyes and saw Russell who widened his eyes when he sighted her.

"Nyarr, look who's here, folks! The guest who is…" He raised his arm and looked at his watch that had a weird, fish-like shape, "An hour and 35 minutes late!" He exclaimed alarmed, "An hour and 35 minutes late!" He repeated, shaking his head then grabbed her arm and dragged her inside into the multitude of students that reeked of alcohol and bodily fluids.

Flaker scrunched her nose up in disgust, feeling a little ill. She looked around and noticed that almost half of the 'Happy Tree' high school was there and probably other teenagers from other schools.

Those kids weren't conscious of the fact that they had classes the next day, Flaker realized disturbed. She noticed Petunia dancing with Hayden through the crowd and, a few feet away, the Smuggler twins and Nathan were sprawled out on a long, white couch and laughing out loudly.

On the other side, Cody and Spencer were doing an arm wrestling contest, while a bunch of students cheered around them. Spencer seemed to defeat Cody, because Thomas replaced him, then the kids started yelling around them again.

Someone pushed into her, but Russell caught her before she fell to the floor. She shook her head and lifted it to discern Ginger exclaiming in relief; she hugged her happily and Flaker flinched.

Her friends never understood that she didn't like being touched.

"Thank god you're here!" Ginger spoke, looking warily around her. "I thought I was never going to get rid of that perv again!"

Flaker watched her questioningly.

"Who?"

"David Brian, of course. He kept rawring at me and wiggling those eyebrows. Ugh. It's a good thing I lost him." She wiped her forehead and sighed.

"Well, I'm going, ladies." Russell butted in. "The beer waits for me." He grinned at them, before he disappeared into the mass of people.

Flaker grimaced.

"He stank of alcohol." She told Ginger.

Her friend giggled, then pointed at the couch Nathan and the twins were standing on. They sat as far away as they could from them and watched how Spencer was doing a victory dance, because he'd just defeated Thomas in the strength contest.

Cody and Thomas approached them with sullen expressions and sat on both sides of the girls.

"He thinks he's so cool." Cody growled, throwing a dirty look at Spencer, who was smiling proudly in front of some girls.

"That's because he _is_ cool." Thomas responded.

"You just say that because you get along with him. He's a wanker and he thinks he's a superhero or something." The blond boy grumbled.

"A wanker who kicked your ass." Thomas smirked and Cody stretched out over Ginger and Flaker to hit him in the head.

"Guys, guys!" Ginger interfered, breaking them up. "It's just a stupid game, cut it out." She smiled at Cody, who backed down and returned the smile. Thomas rolled his eyes.

"Can they be more obvious than that?" He whispered to Flaker; she snickered.

It appeared that his thoughts were shared because Nathan's voice was heard singing 'Cody and Ginger sitting in a tree', from the other side of the couch; Luke and Shane joined him, making Cody and Ginger turn beet red.

Petunia appeared from the crowd, dragging Hayden after her, and they both placed themselves next to Cody, who was still throwing fugitive looks at Ginger.

She gazed around her and her jaw fell in outrage.

"Oh, god, my house is a mess! Hayden, hold me while I faint." She spoke in a dramatic voice. The others laughed and she pouted, crossing her arms. "It's not funny, I'll have to work a lot until everything will be back to normal." She gawked at her blue dress and gasped. "Holy crap, is that a spot?"

Hayden smirked.

"You're still beautiful with that spot, baby." He kissed her and she blushed.

"Please stop before I puke." Nathan grimaced, covering his eyes.

The others chuckled as the Smuggler twins grinned at each other then took Nathan's hands from his eyes, making him look at the scene.

"You're just jealous, Nutty." Cody smiled impishly.

"No, I'm not!" Nathan protested. He pushed Luke and Shane's hands away, throwing them a deadly look.

"Who cares?" Petunia spoke in an annoyed voice, trying to change the subject. She suddenly smiled and leapt glowing. "Sooo, Halloween is coming. What are you guys dressing like? I'm thinking about a skunk."

"More like a skank." Nathan commented in half a voice.

"Shut the hell up, jerk!" She yelled at him, then turned towards Hayden, who, Flaker noted, was barely able to hold in his amusement. "Haaandy, tell him to shut up!" She whined. Hayden scrunched his features up, intending to appear serious, but he failed.

"Shut up, Nathan." He told him in an amused voice.

Petunia frowned as the rest of the boys gave a roar of laughter.

Suddenly, one of the twins-Luke or Shane, Flaker rarely made the difference between them, except when Shane was wearing a weird, green hat, which he wasn't at that moment- bent over and gazed intently at something. He narrowed his eyes, then bolted and grabbed the thing that was lying at the foot of the couch.

Flaker enlarged her eyes in alarm when she saw that they grabbed her schoolbag.

"Who the hell would come with a schoolbag at a party?" He asked loudly, attracting the others' attention. A thing inside Flaker's head made her stomach turn with anxiety. She stretched her arm.

"That's mine. Give it to me please." She said unsurely as she swallowed the bitter taste of dread in her mouth. Two self-satisfied smiles crept across the twins' faces, like they were pleased what she had just said.

"Uh-uh." One of the brothers promptly countered. "We have to see what's in it first."

"Don't be bastards." Ginger told them, taking her defense. "Give Flaky her bag."

"Yeah, what can you possibly find in it?" Thomas noted straight away then he grimaced like he had just eaten a lemon. "Except for books. And I'm not in the mood to talk about school right now."

The others agreed with him.

"You may never know when it's red flake's bag." Luke- that was who Flaker thought he was- shook the bag and studied it as if it contained something really precious. "Pills, antidepressants… _paranoia _drugs." He grinned like a Cheshire cat when the others threw him appalled glances. Instead of flipping, Flaker's stomach was in the throes of gnawing queasiness. She looked down at the floor miserably and Cody leapt when saw that.

"Put that down, you son of a bitch." He growled at Luke, with his fists clenched. The twin gasped and pretended to be scared. He sniggered and looked through her bag, mulling over whether it was worth it or not, then he appeared to reach a decision because he smirked when he saw something and dug his arm into the schoolbag.

She jumped on her feet and dashed at him, trying to snatch it from his arms before he found what she was sure he was going to find, but it was too late.

When Flaker retrieved her schoolbag, they had already the paper that she didn't want anyone ever to see. _Ever._

Luke lifted it confused and stared at the paper with a blank face. Shane looked over his shoulder and mumbled a 'what the fuck', before both shattered the silence with their obnoxious laughter.

The others gawked at them uncomprehendingly and blinked several times. A sinking, sedating feeling resonated from Flaker's gut and spread outwards to her fingertips and lower.

She knew she shouldn't have kept that paper.

"What's that?" Nathan asked curiously, tipping his head so that he could see what was on the paper. All the curiosity snapped away from him as his mouth became a tight line and his eyes widened, resembling dinner plates.

"Wow." He muttered in awe. "And I thought she was weird because she was hanging out with Sniffles-Mr. Boring. This…" He shook his head. "This surpasses even the weirdest weirdo."

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Petunia asked, feeling her patience slip out, "What could possibly be so unusual on that pa-"

She stopped and widened her eyes along with the others when Nathan turned the paper to them.

"Oh." She finished speechless. Flaker felt their stares on her and she bit her trembling lip as she frowned and forcefully took the paper from Nathan's hand.

"T-that's n-none of your business." She addressed to them in a quivering voice.

"What the heck, do you have a crush on that Flippy guy or what?" Nathan asked her, raising his eyebrows humored.

They always jumped to conclusions _so_ fast.

"No, I don't!" She spoke too quickly, defensive. "He just gave me that and I forgot it in my bag." It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the truth either. When she had first seen the paper with the green teddy bear named Flippy, that Phillip had given her, she had decided to keep it. She actually studied it once in a while, when she was bored in classes.

"Ook…" Cody mumbled awkwardly. "Well just so you know, Flaky, it can end badly if you like him that way. That's just a friendly warning."

"But I don't!" She snapped annoyed. "You know what, I didn't even want to come here anyway. I'm going home." She swiveled on her heel, ready to leave, but a hand grabbed her shoulder and kept her in place. She turned her head to see Ginger having a worried expression on her face.

"You're right, Flaky." She told her. "It's not our business, but… be careful."

Flaker watched the others and saw they had the same worried looks. She felt her anger subside. The stress was making her head hurt again and she clenched her jaw.

"That's awesome!" Shane jumped in anticipation. "It's just like the Stockholm syndrome! You know, when the victim falls for the murderer and starts to-"

Petunia suddenly turned to the Smuggler twins.

"Get out." She barked at them.

Luke and Shane stared at her, taken aback.

"Why?" Shane asked hostile.

"Get out!" She yelled louder this time. "You're causing trouble everywhere you go!" She stood up and pushed them through the crowd as they swore at her. She turned her head.

"You too, Gobbet!" She howled at Nathan, who pouted.

"Me? But why?" He asked sulkily.

"Because you're an asshole."

…

She stuffed her books into her locker and threw a look at the small mirror stuck to the door. Her hair was haywire as always, her face was pale as always- maybe even paler than usually due to the tiredness- and blue-purplish circles adorned her eyes, making her look like a zombie.

Flaker snorted and banged the locker's door then took her books and headed towards the Math class.

When she sat in her chair- the first, in the middle row-, she observed a small piece of paper inside the desk and froze. She looked around her alarmed, but no one was paying attention to her, everyone being preoccupied with the class that was about to begin. Or that was it looked like to her.

She felt bothered. Really bothered as she grabbed the piece of paper and stared at it like it was some kind of creature which wanted to bite her. She felt her stomach filled with heavy lead and she sensed her hand wavering when she unfolded it slowly. She started chewing on her fingernail, then her finger, gnawing through it, like a knife through butter. That was how nervous she was.

Panic and excitement made their way through her mind and a small voice kept telling her something in her head, something that Flaker didn't like. A voice that told her the note was from _him_.

And it was right.

'_Meet me after Math, in front of the biology lab._

_Phillip._'

She dropped the note. She got that horrible feeling, the feeling people got when they were being watched. Like the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, she got goosebumps all down her arms and she started to tingle from the inside, in her gut.

In no way she was going. He was crazy if he thought that she would meet him after everything that had happened. At that point, she wanted to laugh out loud because she remembered that he _actually was_ crazy.

She turned around, threw him a short look and saw him standing in his seat, apparently writing something. He wasn't even looking at her and Flaker exhaled in ease.

Maybe he didn't send her that note. Maybe somebody was pulling her a prank, trying to scare her. She peeked at the Smuggler brothers, but they were absorbed into a heated discussion and they weren't aware of what was going on around them.

She couldn't go. No, she couldn't risk being attacked again and Flaker doubted that she would have the same luck as the last time. She wouldn't probably get away and he would kill her. Or rape her.

She shuddered and frantically grasped the edge of the desk, trying to stabilize herself. It wasn't possible to live in such a permanent fear.

The entire class she stood like a statue, staring blankly at the blackboard, while Mr. Liam explained to them some crap about the wildlife, instead of teaching them Math. He was a lazy ass and he never accomplished his job. Probably that was why most students were always failing. She wondered how he had managed to get that position.

When the class ended, she remained still in her chair and looked at the other kids that exited the classroom. Her friends asked her if she wanted to hang out in the schoolyard, but she found an excuse and told them that she wanted to repeat the lesson for the next class.

Flaker lingered in the same place, until Phillip finally passed near her desk- without even throwing her a look- and got out the door. A heavy, invisible blow hit her stomach in hopelessness.

It was a joke for sure. It wasn't possible that he had sent her that note and then he didn't even show her a sign that he was the one who did it.

Even if he did, she was so terrorized by the idea of meeting him that she renounced at the thought and decided to go after her friends.

She stepped carefully on the school's halls, trying to come to her senses, and looked around a few times, remarking that most students were spending the break outside, because the halls were almost empty. Her heart was thumping in her head louder than she'd ever heard before. She could feel it banging in her chest and the adrenaline was propelling itself through her veins, whooshing in her ears. After she descended the stairs, reaching the ground floor, she walked by various classrooms.

When she got near the biology one, Flaker darted, trying to run, but she didn't succeed.

Someone suddenly grabbed her arm and dragged her into the classroom, making her yelp, then closed the door after them with a loud thud.

She stumbled forward and fell on a desk, breathing heavily. There was a little pause. It only lasted for two or three seconds, but to her it felt like time totally just stopped and she was stuck with it. She couldn't move.

With great effort she turned her head in slow motion.

It was _him_.

Flaker widened her eyes, almost having a heart attack. Her brain switched into survival mode as she bolted, took the first chair in a second and lifted it in his direction, threateningly.

"Stay back!" She shook the chair, trembling. "I-I have a chair and I'm not a-afraid to u-use it! O-or maybe I'm afraid, b-but I'll s-still use it!" She yelled at him frenziedly.

Phillip goggled at her and raised his hands in defense.

"I know you're scared but I just want to talk to you." He told her as Flaker stared at him tense.

"There's n-nothing to t-talk about!" She retorted as she took a step backwards. "Nothing!" She got around a few desks and realized that she was already standing in the middle of the room.

She lifted the chair higher and frowned unyielding.

"I'll hit y-you if you come a-any closer!" Flaker warned him.

He gave an exaggerated sigh and dug his face into his hands and sat that way for a moment before surfacing and grumbling something bitterly.

"I'm sorry for what I did the other day."

His eyes had their normal green and they didn't have that strange light they had when he was acting like a psycho. That made her let her guard down.

_Wrong move_. He got closer in less than two seconds and seized the chair's leg, snatching it from her hands and making her trip and fall on her behind.

"I won't do anything to you, please, just listen!" He spoke up in exasperation as he fixed her with his pleading eyes.

She wriggled as she saw him putting the chair back in its place quickly, then he turned his attention to her.

"N-no w-way!" She cried.

Flaker crawled on her knees between two desks, before she stood up quickly, ran towards the teacher's desk and went behind it, shielding herself. When she noticed him coming closer, she squeaked in alarm and looked around her desperately.

An idea came to her when she saw the pieces of chalk and she grabbed them, throwing them at him. Phillip counteracted them with his arms, then stared at her in that special, messed up way of him, for a moment. He shook his head startled.

"Don't do that!" He shouted. His face was scared and Flaker had a bad, bad feeling.

"You s-stay away f-from me!" She screeched, taking something big – like an utensil support- and threw it at him, but he caught it in time with one hand, while he rubbed his head with the other and squeezed his eyes shut for a second, breathing deeply and trying to calm down. When he opened his eyes, Flaker saw the strange glint appear for a second, before it went away.

"Stop it already!" He snapped at her. "I wanted to apologize, that's all!"

Flaker felt every muscle in her body clenched tightly. She was sure she was the perfect picture of fright and she was sure he was well aware of that.

"A-apologize?" She faltered. "You're i-insane. Even i-if you apologize, I d-don't want anything to do w-with you a-anymore." Flaker stammered. She knew that it wasn't actually true. She somewhat wanted to be his friend, but her fear of him was so great, that it wasn't important.

"Fine." He muttered. "I've said sorry. If you want to accept it or not, that's your business"

He stared for a moment at his shirt - it looked like the ones that soldiers in the army wore-, which was all dirty from the chalk dust then he raised his eyes.

"It seems that we'll fail Biology this semester." He told her sullenly.

He went out the door and left her alone, staring at the air.

Flaker sensed a pain in her chest and it felt weird because she had never felt anything like that in her entire life.

It was like she wanted to… _cry_.

She had cried many times but the causes had never been other persons. It was childish.

The girl shook her head downhearted and looked at the mess they had left behind. She wanted to clean it up, but she gave up at the idea.

It didn't matter to her, after all.


	6. Distorted perception

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Happy Tree Friends.

**Warning:** The story contains inappropriate language, sexual scenes, mind screw and other T/M rated stuff.

…

"Phren Phillip and Thorn Flaker."

She became immobile in the moment she heard her name called. She stuck her back to the chair in strain. She looked to her left and saw Phillip having the same reaction.

Pop adjusted his voice and read their names on the list once again.

"Phillip and Flaker. I don't have all day."

The teacher threw them an inquisitive look and furrowed his brow when he saw the image in front of him; a few kids turned around to look at the two teens who sat uneasily at the back of the class, far away from each other. In fact, one of them was sitting in a desk, while the other was sitting outside of it.

"Where is your project?" Pop inquired in an annoyed voice. He gaped from one student to the other, demanding an explanation and Flaker felt how the room suddenly started heating up. Her lips were glued to each other and she began trembling like a leaf in the wind's blow. She couldn't get out a word.

The others started speaking lowly between them and she furrowed her brow in irritation. She tried to unclench her teeth so that she could answer the question, but he had been faster than her.

"We don't have it, sir." Phillip suddenly spoke; chills enveloped her as she tightly gripped the edges of the chair.

"And why, may I ask?" Pop arched his eyebrows, glaring at them, then he turned towards Flaker, who pursed her lips into a tight line, under pressure. Something inside her tightened and one of her legs stirred, as if someone had hit it with a hammer.

"Miss Thorn, why are you sitting five feet away from your desk?" He asked her skeptically. "I think I have been very specific when I said that students that work on the same assignments must sit in the same desks." He paused and scrutinized them. "And I repeat the question. Where is yours?"

Silence filled the class as pairs of eyes settled on them in anticipation. Flaker twitched and stared at the floor ashamed. She couldn't believe that she'd put all her trust in Phillip to handle all that commotion. She couldn't answer Pop's interrogatory because she was too nervous.

So nervous that she would blurt out that she would rather fail than write the essay with her partner, because he almost raped her.

"Uh, we didn't manage to write it. We, uh, didn't have time." And that was how Phillip saved the day with his ability to lie. It wasn't very good, because Pop raised an eyebrow in disbelief, but he accepted it, in the end.

The teacher sighed and made her a sign to go back to her place – that meant she had to go near _him_- but she stood in the same spot, like a statue. Pop's peeved expression turned into a confused one when she didn't follow his direction. He threw Phillip a questioning look, but Phillip just shook his head hopelessly.

"What's the meaning of this?" Pop asked, losing his patience. "Flaker, I'm not very willing to play games at this hour."

She closed her teeth tightly and looked over to note Phillip staring at the floor sullen. She swallowed and clung herself to the chair harder, as if she wanted to mingle with it. She shook her head fervently.

"Please, sir, let me stay here." She spoke with her breath almost gone. Pop inhaled deeply and grabbed the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut.

"You're the only students who didn't bring the essay." Then he stared dryly at the Smuggler twins, "Except Luke and Shane, who never do their homework." The two brothers grinned and raised their shoulders in a shrug, indifferent. "I didn't expect this, especially from you, Flaker." Pop gazed at her scoldingly and she hung her head in shame.

"No matter what your personal problems are- and I don't want to find out about them- you have to settle your differences." He continued.

A horrendous warmth wrapped her up and her legs started moving involuntarily in agitation. No, it wasn't possible. He wasn't going to say what she thought he wanted to say. She already took a decision. She would rather fail than write the essay with him for the second time. Actually, for the first time. She didn't want that, but she was sure Pop wasn't going to understand. He was going to tell them to-

"Write the essay. I'll give you one more chance."

Why, why did he have to be so indulgent?

"No!" Flaker jumped alarmed. The others gazed at her weirdly and she fiddled with her fingers. "Heh, I-I think it would be better if we-"

She heard Phillip snort in indignation.

"Thank you, sir." He interrupted her, looking annoyed at Flaker, who enlarged her eyes in fear. "We'll try this time."

"N-no, n-no it's not necessary." She contradicted him, biting her lip. Phillip deadpanned. "Maybe w-we can find ano-"

"That's enough." Pop grated out, irate. "Flaker, go back to your place."

She shook her head in anguish.

"B-but!"

"Now!" Pop snapped.

She gave a hopeless, deep breath as she began to inch back, pulling her chair up with difficulty, moving slowly towards Phillip's desk. A screeching sound was heard, while she was dragging it after her, and some students snickered amused at the speed with which she was shifting. Her first impulse was to run as far away as she could from that place.

After Pop repeated her a few times to move faster, she finally got near Phillip, who disregarded her efforts to place herself at the edge of the desk, putting a considerable distance between them. Her face was burning and she couldn't figure out if it was from the dread or from the fact that she was standing so close to him that she could almost hear his breathing. Maybe from both.

She couldn't believe her Biology teacher got her again into a week filled with stress and she wanted to slam her head into the wall when she realized that she had to be near _him_ again- which she was, at that moment, and it was making her terribly tense. She thought that it would have been way better if Pop was one of those teachers who gave their students hell and threw them out the window at the smallest mistake. Perhaps he would have let them fail if he was like that.

Flaker stirred in her place and tried really hard to look ahead; or in any direction except her desk mate. She refused to pay attention to him, but her mind was playing tricks on her again and started screaming all kinds of obscenities at her, obscenities that she believed he would do to her if they were alone; a sinking feeling settled in her stomach at the thought and she changed her position, moving even farther from him.

It was ludicrous. It happened just once, but that didn't mean he was going to repeat the scene. Maybe it had been an impulse, something he had done on the spur of the moment because she had discovered his scary secret. He didn't even seem to care anymore, because he ignored her most of the time.

In fact, if she thought better, he only talked to her because he wanted to write their essay. She was just like any other acquaintance to him, a stranger who had to help him pass a class. Flaker was sure she was the only one who constantly thought about what had happened.

Even though she couldn't stop thinking because she knew that he was insane and that he could attack her in any moment in one of his sick, dangerous ways.

She suddenly felt something on her thigh and she looked down to see his hand. She gave a small, horrified screech then gawked at him. He had the look.

_The look._

"Oh my god what are you doing?" She quavered and twitched like a scared, little animal that was hunted by a bigger one.

He stared at her. Just _stared_ at her. Didn't say a word. She could swear he was trying to read her mind with those creepy, hypnotizing eyes.

Flaker snatched his hand, pushed it away and he grinned at her reaction, before he stretched his arm and grabbed her middle, dragging her closer. She choked from the lack of air and desperately tried to push him away, but her strength was nothing compared to his. Phillip buried his face into her hair and inhaled, then lowered his mouth until it reached her neck and bit so hard that she felt his teeth piercing her neck. She gave painful moan as she almost fell from her chair, but he kept her in place.

She wondered horrified if she was actually bleeding from that bite.

When she looked around them, no one was noticing what was happening. She tried to scream, but it was like her voice was gone because she couldn't get out a sound.

It wasn't for real. He wasn't doing that to her in the middle of the class. He crossed boundaries and it was out of league even for him. Flaker whimpered and struggled. She desperately wanted to grab someone else's attention, there had to be someone who had seen them… but it was no one. It wasn't possible that he was molesting her in a room full of people and that no one was realizing that.

He sniggered in her ear and lowered his hand, grasping under her skirt. She boiled in aggravation and pushed him so desperate that he withdrew a few inches so that she could see his feral expression. In the course of half a second, she went through about six different emotions: fear, shock, elation, grief, contentment and most of all, perplexity. She wanted so much to yell and she still didn't do it. Something changed inside her while he was doing these things to her, then she turned her head as he licked the corner of her mouth.

"I'm going to kill you after I'm done with this."

"Nooo!"

She raised her head and looked wildly around her like someone invisible slapped her face. Many turned their heads in her direction and stared at her like she was high from drugs. To her left, Phillip was standing in the exact same place as earlier, to the other side of the desk. He was gaping at her wondering.

"Care to explain this sudden outburst, Flaker?" Pop yelled out loud, for everyone to hear.

Snapping out of her trancelike state, she blinked several times before she shook her head.

"Sorry sir, I was sneezing." Restrained laugh rippled through the class and Pop turned around and went back to whatever he was writing on the board.

What in god's name had just happened, she couldn't comprehend. In one moment, Phillip was over her, in the next, he stood there, looking bored, at a distance he couldn't cross in such a short time.

He turned his head and ignored her, leaving her awestruck. She at least expected him to make one of his lunatic faces, to smirk at her, wink or something, but he didn't. He didn't appear to realize what he'd just done. Or what he was about to do.

Then reality struck her like a rock in the head.

Nothing happened a few moments ago. It had been just a _hallucination_.

…

Her ride was late. She glanced down at her watch- 3:45. The sun was beating down on her. She stood on a bench, next to the schoolyard's fence, and studied the last groups of students that exited the school gates to go home. They laughed and joked, oblivious to what was around them. Flaker wanted so much to be like them, free of worries, ignorant and laid-back.

She wanted so much to stop being paranoid. She finally admitted that she was actually paranoid. If she started having hallucinations so vivid, that she confused with reality, then that meant something was definitely wrong with her.

She sighed and unfolded the paper she was tightly holding in her hand and gazed at the little, green teddy bear on it.

It wasn't something she could even try to deny anymore. She knew it sounded funny, stupid and cliché, but she was enamoured. And not with Phillip, but with the idea of Phillip.

Which wasn't a very good idea at all and it made her think almost all the time about him. Not him, as a person necessarily, but about things related to him.

For example, she always wondered how he got like that, where he got that insanity from, that mental illness. What it was called like. She sometimes thought about his family, where he lived, she asked herself if he actually had parents and if they lived or died. Or maybe he killed them.

At that thought, Flaker shivered terrified and tried to get rid of it.

It was the first time she fell for someone and that someone abused her and treated her like dirt. It was true that he had moments when he acted nice to her – extremely nice, actually- but what he had done to her that day, it marked her.

If she was afraid of chickens, then that meant she was horrified by something that actually attacked her. Something like him.

Flaker suddenly wanted to smile at the paradox. She was scared of someone who she had romantic feelings for.

The doors of the school opened, and out walked Phillip, looking like someone who wanted to join the army, but couldn't because he was too young. She couldn't understand why he dressed all the time in those clothes. It just added to the 'creep' factor.

He spotted her in less than five seconds. With the way things were going by then, she should've been expecting that sort of thing. Her life has then become a really bad horror movie. Really bad.

"Hey," He said and waved. She froze. He was there, she was there, no one else was there. He probably thought that if he didn't say anything, it would've been just awkward and creepy between them.

Too bad she had other intentions.

Flaker folded quickly the drawing and stuffed it in her bag, then stood up in a hurry and started walking in her house's direction. It was quite far away – half an hour away from the school, more precisely- but she didn't care. She wasn't staying even one more minute there.

She heard him call her name and she fastened her pace in alarm. To her demise, two steps of hers were the equal of one of his, because he stopped her by grabbing her shoulder, before she could even make ten steps.

Phillip turned her around and she gawked at him like he was out of his mind. He knew he shouldn't go near her, let alone touch her. She made that idea clear to him, but he still did it.

She was never going to get rid of him.

Flaker moved in restlessness and smacked his hand away, stumbling backward.

"G-god, what's your p-problem?" She could hear herself stuttering. "Why c-can't you just l-leave me alone!"

He frowned offended.

"My problem? What's yours? It's not like I did something that bad to you that day, I just-" He suddenly paused, a look of concentration on his face. "Ok, maybe it was bad, but it wasn't that traumatic as you make it seem!" He told her annoyed.

"It was t-traumatic to m-me!" She retorted teary eyed.

"That's because you have issues! You like to dramatize in front of other people, just like you did today in front of the others when you moved your chair far away from my desk! And every time we speak, you get apprehensive and shifty and all…" He looked up quickly. "Crazy!"

She gave a short cry. In fact, it was more like a whimper. She got really out of character. Actually, she thought she was becoming mental right then and there. "A-are you k-kidding me? You t-think I'm the c-crazy one here? I-I- you think that- with- the- knife- mirror- and Flippy and all- I mean-"

"Very articulate." He interrupted her, smiling wryly. She huffed, feeling her face burning, then turned around, but he swung her back and she yelped fearfully.

"Don't t-touch m-me," She slapped his hand again and gazed at him wide-eyed. "If you w-want your e-essay, I'll write it and g-give it to you. Just, please- " She actually started _begging _him. "J-just, p-please, l-leave me alone." Her mouth felt really dry.

His smile suddenly faded away and he adopted a straight, somber expression.

"That wouldn't be fair to you and I don't think Pop will pass any of us if he finds out that only one wrote-"

"Do you think it was f-fair to me w-when you a-agreed with Pop's d-decision?"

"Well, do you think it's fair to me when you want to make me fail just because you have irrational fears?"

"_Irrrrational_? " The word rumbled in her throat. "You a-acted like a l-lunatic then you _m-__molested_ me! H-how can not someone be afraid o-of _that_?" She gasped frantically.

His lips curled as if he was dejected all of a sudden.

"I told you I'm sorry…" He trailed off. "What do you want me to do?"

"N-nothing. Don't you g-get it? Oh, g-god." She gazed up at him in exasperation.

He looked down at her with a bothered glare.

"You know what, I'm sick of your little charade." He went from coolly quiet to startlingly loud. "I'm trying to be nice to you, but you're making it very difficult!"

She went reeling backward, her mouth and eyes wide open. She only hoped that he wasn't going to flip out again, but, thankfully, he just remained quiet and kept his gaze firmly settled on her, looking like she slapped him. Which she did, when she pushed his hands off her, a few moments earlier.

They stood in silence for a few seconds, one appearing sullen, the other fearful, before he spoke. One word.

"Saturday."

"W-what? W-what?"

"Saturday. We meet in the library on Saturday." He said as if it was a perfectly normal situation.

"N-no. No w-way. I'm n-not going through t-that again." She shook her head instinctively and put her own arms around herself, shivering, then she drew a jagged breathe and mumbled. "You're not t-telling m-me what to d-do."

He glanced down for a moment at his black boots, then back at her as if he was plotting something. He had some sort of weird, plotting look. Then...

"I promise I'll try to behave well." He said gloomily.

She remained unmoving. She didn't shiver; she didn't twitch. She wasn't even sure if she was breathing anymore. She couldn't believe that she was actually pondering that thought. No. No, she couldn't.

"Promise." He repeated. He tilted his head with a look filled with hope and something in her chest banged loudly.

She was very quiet for a few seconds. Very, very quiet. All of a sudden she started shifting from a calm and focused person into a stuttering spaz, before she twitched and stared at him with big brown eyes, blinking all too fast. She was so flustered that she didn't even know what she was going to say.

"I'll t-think- I mean I'm, uh, going to think about it." She blurted it out then covered her mouth with her hand in surprise.

She didn't just say _that_. He looked quite taken aback as well, and she clicked her tongue, mentally kicking herself. That little crush was seriously starting to rub off on her.

"Once again, very articulate." He smirked. "It's that hard, huh?"

She averted her eyes, biting her lip.

"I'm o-only doing t-this because I've c-changed m-my mind. I don't t-think I want to f-fail either." She mumbled pathetically. "I-it's not like you e-expect me to be all pink and flowery and d-dance around you, after what y-you've done to me."

His smile widened and she was sure he was imagining what she had just said; she fought the urge to roll her eyes.

He thanked her and patted her lightly on the head. She jumped startled.

Then she smacked his hand again.


	7. Sick Thinking

**A/N: **Sorry for my late update. I'm studying for med school, so I'll probably won't update that often, but that doesn't mean I won't still write. Plus, English is not my first language, so it takes a while until I manage to write an acceptable chapter, when it comes to grammar.

**Disclaimer:**Unfortunately, I'm not the creator of that sick, twisted, hella awesome cartoon.

**Warning:** As always, the swearing, the sexual innuendo, the violence… usual elements present in T/M rated stories. And Flippy.

…

Flaker thought almost the entire morning about what she had spoken with Phillip a day before. She was nervous and somewhat angry with herself because she had the nerve to tell him that she was going to consider his proposition. It had been reckless of her to burst out like that.

That meant she was stuck with this situation and she had to find a way to bear his presence for more than five minutes, so that they could finish that burdensome assignment once and for all.

After that, their ways would separate again and they wouldn't address to each other and Flaker could at least return to a somewhat normal and less scary life.

And that irrational, stupid, annoying little crush would disappear, as well, along with the horrific phase she had to put up with, in all these days, because of him.

She couldn't wait for that to happen.

She was nervous and fidgety as she thought about a solution, and, as usually, her attitude deranged the ones around her and determined them to ask her many times if she felt alright.

In Math class, she didn't figure out that, instead of taking notes, she wrote repeatedly Phillip's name on her notebook. She tried to erase it quickly, before someone saw it, which attracted Mr. Liam's attention. He snatched the notebook from her desk and stared at it uncomprehendingly, making Flaker turn red.

Fortunately for her, he wasn't too bright, because he didn't seem to understand the reason why she wrote that name so many times. He just told her to pay attention to class, then ripped the paper off her notebook, crumpled it and threw it into the trashcan, without making fun of her in front of her classmates, like other teachers would have done.

Flaker sighed in relief and fell asleep for the rest of the class, half dreaming horrible stuff, until the bell rang loudly, then she leapt like burned and gathered her books, shaking. She walked slowly towards the cafeteria and, when she reached it, she stopped and inhaled deeply, prepared for the reactions she was going to cause. The others were probably, most surely, going to look at her like she was the new chupacabra, for what she was about to do.

She made a pause in front of the doors, then she pushed them with all her force and entered the room, scanning it.

Her friends were at a table in the middle of the room and they waved at her, calling her, but she didn't move an inch. In the opposite direction, Phillip was sitting alone, at another table, and he was looking down at something in his plate.

Flaker gazed for a moment at the books in her arms and tensed.

Then she went in his table's direction.

A big part of the student crowd gawked at her in awe, while her friends remained in shock. When she got near his table, he didn't appear to notice that she was standing right in front of him for two or three seconds.

He slowly lifted his eyes, which were wide and really, really green – Flaker couldn't help but notice it- and dropped the sandwich from his hands. He looked confused to his left, then to his right, like he didn't know for sure if she was actually there, then at her and his eyes became so large that Flaker believed they were going to pop out and fall off.

"What are you doing?" He asked on a tone void of any emotion. He took a voracious bite from his sandwich and kept staring at her, while he was munching, and she knew they probably looked quite funny to the others, because they continued to stare skeptically at each other for a few moments, before she decided to answer his question.

She clenched her jaw and clutched harder the books, as she dragged the chair with a trembling hand and sat in front of him unsurely. She breathed deeply and pushed the books in his face.

"W-we're d-doing it here." She muttered, averting her eyes. Phillip furrowed his brow.

"Here?"

"T-the assignment." Flaker stammered. "In f-front of e-everyone."

He stopped eating and looked at her; she felt like he was trying to read her mind again and it was getting to be quite unnerving. Then he went back to his sandwich and started chewing, with a blank expression.

"I was right." He concluded. He pointed at the others, who whispered and threw them fugitive glares. "You do like to be the center of attention. To dramatize." He stopped chewing for a moment, seemed a bit piqued, continued chewing, swallowed. "We're just like on a stage right now, get it?" He carried on and Flaker noted that he was particularly sarcastic, a trait of both his normal and flipped out versions. "These kids' eyes are just like reflectors. They see every move we make. They'll probably start a new rumor, like how you're my slave and I make you do nasty things behind-"

"I d-don't care!" She burst out, tired of all that irony. "D-did you really t-think that I was going to agree w-with your decision? That I was going to m-meet you Saturday at the l-library, when no one is in the s-school? Not e-even in y-your dreams." She mumbled, then inhaled, returning to her initial state. "You can't molest m-me here. Actually, you can't do a-anything to me here."

He shook his head.

"If you think those are my real intentions…" He snorted. "I just don't want to fail, that's all." He rolled his eyes at her and Flaker felt a little humiliated.

"Yes, that's w-what I think." She replied defensive, sounding offended, to her displeasure. "After you have a-attacked me, it's n-normal to think like this." She huffed and he watched her with a regretful look.

She calmed down and showed him the books, before she took a paper and unfolded it.

"We'll just continue w-with what we've started l-last time, at the library." She murmured. "I've brought the books to complete the d-details you're going to m-miss, when you'll tell me w-what to write."

He studied her doubtful.

"And you think we're going to finish the essay in twenty minutes, how long the lunch break lasts?" He inquired.

"O-of course not. I thought about this, too. We'll write different parts Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, until the next Thursday." She saw that his expression changed; a trace of disappointment passed over his features. "I think we can s-skip lunch a few days." She spoke.

When he opened his mouth to protest, with a hopeful light in his eyes, she stopped him.

"Be t-thankful I have agreed to write the essay." She grumbled. "I could have r-refused from the beginning."

He deadpanned, then he frowned in dejection. Flaker raised her pen, dropped it, bent over and took it again agitated, while he was studying her calmly. She could feel her face engulfed in a hot blush, due to her klutziness, and she breathed heavily. She knew she shouldn't care in the least about what he was thinking of her, but she couldn't help but be embarrassed.

"V-very w-well. T-tell me so I can write." She mumbled in a shivering voice, staring at the table and avoiding his eyes. "Blood and circulation."

It was quiet for a moment.

"What?" He asked in a weird voice. She lifted her head to look at him and she gulped when she saw him having that fucked up look. His hand clenched into a fist and his joints trembled slightly, as if he was going to lose his temper.

"What did you say?" He sharply repeated the question and coldness rippled through Flaker's entire body.

"I… I said t-tell me s-so I can write. B-blood a-and-" She didn't dare to finish her sentence, because she had a feeling that something in that sentence had just woken up his madness.

He was gaping fixedly at an undefined point over her shoulder and his features contorted strangely. His face became somewhat wild and Flaker believed it was her imagination, but his pupils got smaller and the green of his eyes became stronger in a way that made him look like an animal ready to attack.

She froze, dropped the pen from her hand, which fell on the cold, empty table with a loud 'clang', and widened her eyes in fright. She tried to stand up, but Phillip stretched his arm faster than she could react and grabbed hers, pushing her back into her chair.

He was grinning, a 180 degree change from his downcast demeanor two seconds ago.

"You're a pathetic, whiny bitch, aren't you?" He spoke in a low voice, contemptuously. "But you're not going to your little, insufferable friends to tell them to save you, because they can't. I'll murder them all and you don't want that." He looked at her square in the eye.

She stuck herself to the chair so hard that she almost fell on her back. She thought her head was going to explode.

"W-what!" It was less of a question and more of an automatic response. She peered wildly around her; a few students still watched them curiously, but they didn't realize what was really going on. Most of them returned to their own business.

"You c-can't do anything to m-me here." She mumbled alarmed. "You w-won't escape if you t-try anything."

He sniggered particularly amused and released her wrist. He stared at her for a moment. Then she felt his hand sneaking up on her leg and grabbing it under the table, and Flaker thought she was going to get a tachycardia and have stroke right then and there. She gave a short yelp as she desperately grabbed the edge of the table, before she shook her leg wildly, in panic, so that he would release it, but his grasp was like a lock, because he kept holding it. He didn't even flinch at her desperate struggles.

He revealed his pointy teeth and clutched her leg harder, digging his fingers into her skin. She whimpered.

She asked herself if that was one of her hallucinations and pinched her hand, intending to wake up, as she trembled uncontrollably, but nothing happened. His psychopathic stare didn't change.

It was for real.

"Sometimes I don't even know if I want to torture you or fuck you." He told her darkly. He tapped his fingers on her leg, pretending to fantasy about that dreadful, sick subject. Chills traveled from the place he was touching her right into her brain. He smirked when she enlarged her eyes and breathed like she was about to choke.

"Maybe both at the same time." He glanced at her like a hyena at would-be prey.

She continued to gawk at him in horror. Rivers of thoughts jumbled inside her head as she desperately sought a solution through which she could get away from him. There had to be a solution. He couldn't be serious when he told her that he was going to kill her friends if she left that table.

Even though she believed that he was capable of anything.

She violently moved her leg again and she believed she kicked him at one point, because he released his grip and set her free, even though he snickered at her gesture. Her teeth clattered in her mouth and shivers engulfed her, while she was heavily gulping air.

"P-please. D-don't do anything r-rash. P-please." She told him, biting her lip hard, and her eyes filled with dread and desperation.

Suddenly, all the hilarity snapped away from him as his expression went from dazed to confused to horrified in about a second flat.

"Oh god, I didn't mean to say that." He said out of the blue, worriedly. He bent over the table and covered her hands with his, but Flaker remained like a doll, without any emotion on her face. She didn't even try to retreat her hands, she just let him hold them.

She was stunned. It was like he was two different persons in two different moments.

Like he had… a _split _personality.

Her blood flowed faster at the dawning realization.

"Is there something wrong here, Flaker?"

They both lifted their heads to see Spencer, who studied them suspiciously, his arms crossed. His gaze fell on their intertwined hands and Phillip backed away, retreating his quickly.

"Your friends sent me over here to check if you're okay." He continued, fixing Phillip, who frowned. "They're a little… worried."

Spencer always liked to be tough one, that was why many sent him when they had 'physical' problems, to use his intimidation method, which worked most of the time. He used to brag about himself and to declare himself a 'hero' and he also was one of the few who had the guts to call Phillip 'Flippy' in his face.

Flaker swallowed and looked at Phillip. He didn't appear to be bothered by him. In fact, he was quite uncaring. He had probably gotten used to people being alert when he was involved in something. He had gotten used to people believing he was dangerous.

And those people were right. He really _was_ dangerous.

"N-no." She spoke, taking both of them by surprise. "It's f-fine." She mumbled.

She wasn't in her right mind if she remained there, but that was one of the only opportunities when she could write that damned essay. Otherwise, she would have run in less than a second from him. Which she was going to do, when the break was over.

"Very well." Spencer told her, throwing Phillip a threatening look. "If you need something, you just have to call me."

She nodded and waited quietly until he went away, then she sucked in her cheeks and blinked fast. Phillip stared at her without saying anything for a few moments. He looked miserable.

"I'm so-"

"W-what is w-wrong w-with you?" She interrupted his apology, stuttering. "W-why are you a-acting like this?"

He didn't answer. He just kept gazing at her with those sorrowful eyes and a warm, sickening feeling washed over her. Her lip quivered and she wrinkled her brow in confusion and aggravation.

"Don't y-you ever… Don't y-you ever speak to me again after this is over. Ever." Flaker stumbled, almost bursting into tears. "In fact, don't you e-even look at me." She continued, trembling and twitching. "You'll act like I d-don't even exist."

His lips curled as if he was slapped all of a sudden. A shadow of longing covered his face for a moment and he looked like he wanted to tell her something, but she just turned her head in disdain, refusing to look at him.

A loud 'chuck' sound was heard, followed by a brief, shocked silence and then boisterous laughter a few tables away. She looked up to see Phillip hit by a big carton of milk. Someone had thrown a milk carton at him and it had exploded.

_A milk carton exploded on him._ She widened her eyes and gaped in the direction the laughs were coming from and she noticed Spencer and his friends laughing out loudly in derisiveness.

"Something hit me." Phillip mumbled and his body shook involuntarily with quick, short movements. Flaker doubted he was going to burst into cries. She bet he was just really pissed. And she was right, because the insane spark returned in full force.

He suddenly grinned and stood up abruptly, throwing his chair to the ground, before he narrowed his eyes and localized Spencer's table. Flaker stood up as well and backed away alarmed, then grabbed her books in a hurry, but he ignored her; he approached the other table in a few steps and some of Spencer's friends sat up frightened, when they saw him coming closer.

She didn't really manage to see what exactly happened in the next moment. All she knew was that the entire group of students started yelling enthusiastically, shouting at them to fight, then a circle formed around them. And that was when she realized horrified that Phillip was beating the crap out of Spencer.

Flaker made her way through the crowd of students as fast as she could, until she got near Cody and Thomas, who shouted as intrigued and fascinated as the rest of the teenagers. She grabbed Thomas's sleeve impatiently.

"Make them stop!" She yelled in his ear. "That's no fight, he's killing him!" She jittered when Thomas looked at her like she was crazy.

"You're joking right? You have to be out of your mind if you think I'm stopping Flippy!" He shuddered.

Her face contorted in abhorrence at the scene in front of her.

Phillip dug his fingers into the other boy's collar and lifted him with ease from the ground, with one hand. Spencer tried desperately to unclench his hand from his neck, but his efforts appeared to be useless, because Phillip watched him into a mix of amusement and boredom. He threw him into another table that crashed to the floor then went after him. He looked down at Spencer, who appeared to be unconscious, before he scrunched his features up in disgust, while he was towering over him. Then Phillip suddenly grabbed the front of his shirt.

"Whoever gave you the right to throw milk cartons at other people like that, huh? WHO? Was it your parents?" He yelled like a lunatic and a deep tension filled the room as many people looked between them, not knowing if something had to be done about that situation, that was getting out of control.

Apparently, no one had the courage to stop him and Flaker remained petrified, when she grasped that perception. He dashed at Spencer and Flaker squeaked scared and covered her eyes with her hands.

Everything appeared to go in slow motion, as she waited with her breath almost gone for the impact, while the rest kept shouting, not caring about what could happen right there, in front of them.

Then the bell rang; a sudden silence froze the whole chaos and she carefully looked through her fingers.

Phillip was standing in the middle of the mess he had made and blinked a few times, as if he had just woken up. He looked around him, at the other students that stared at him confused, then he looked down at Spencer, who was lying at his feet, his face purple from the bruises. He opened his mouth terrified, before he made a few steps backwards and the others departed to let him pass through them.

He crushed some broken glass with his boots as he went out the cafeteria doors that swung loosely after him.

No one said anything for a second.

"I don't think he's going to get away with this." Petunia spoke, but no one answered her.

Flaker just felt a deep hole in her stomach.

...

"We're sorry, Flaky." Ginger told her, while they were walking together on the school halls, heading towards their homes.

"It must be really hard for you to write the essay with that weirdo. If you were afraid of him before, I can't imagine what you must feel like now, after what happened today." Cody stated.

Flaker remained quiet and stared ahead. Frankly, she didn't even know what she was supposed to say.

They pushed the school's gates and got out, into the afternoon light. The bus was waiting in front of the building and it was preparing to leave; Flaker turned her head and saw Phillip in the school yard, standing under a tree and holding a long stick that had a sharp, short iron pin at the end. He stared bored at the bus and at the students who chatted joyously inside it.

"Community service." Petunia said in her ear. "Two weeks. That's his punishment for getting into a fight with Spencer."

They all stopped and watched her reaction, but Flaker didn't sketch an emotion. They asked her if she was coming and she told them to go ahead. Her friends exchanged worried looks, before they went away and left her alone on the stairs in front of the school.

She didn't get close to him. She wasn't that ignorant to do it. She just stood there and gazed silently at him; he raised his eyes and noticed her standing on the stairs alone, then his bored look turned into one covered in grief. She knew he would have apologized for the way he had acted that day, if she was next to him.

The same grief enfolded her.

She shook her head adamantly, before she descended the stairs and followed her friends.


	8. All Hallows' Eve

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Happy Tree Friends. Mondo Media does.

**Author's note:** Hello after more than a year. I know, I'm annoying for updating this so slowly. Still, I have too many ideas in my goddamn brain, so I have to write them down eventually.

Thanks a lot for the attention, I can't believe so many people liked this story.

And yeah. You have the right to hate me.

**Warning:** You know…it's Flippy. And mental screwing.

…

Children's laughter resonated on every street, teenagers listened to loud music in cars on wheels that screeched on the road's pavement, from too much speed. Costumes, masks, creepy sounds everywhere, in every house- especially the houses from her own, weird neighborhood-, various kids scared the hell out of her and then laughed at her for being such a coward…

Well, that was Halloween to her. A nightmare come true.

She tapped her foot impatiently in front of her house's main door, as she waited for her friends to arrive and take her to whatever irritating party they had planned to attend in that night.

She was aware that she had probably checked her watch at least eight times until then and that she had jumped at least five times and, in most cases, the cause of her scare had been her own, tricky mind. There were a few kids from her school who passed by, dressed in horrendous suits, and she was about to make a few heart attacks, although nothing serious happened.

All she wanted was that terrifying night to be over already, so that she could calm herself down. She put her palm on her chest and she felt her heart drumming like crazy, hoping with all her might that she would pass through that night without dying.

She didn't want to die yet. She was too young.

Suddenly, a black and white photo was shoved into her face while a hand clutched her shoulder tightly. She felt her stomach turn upside down from the horror that crawled under her skin.

Flaker didn't think it was possible, but the capacity of her vocal cords proved her that it indeed was, hence her scream probably reached the other neighborhood and terrorized the children that were just passing near her house at that moment. The person that touched her shoulder gave a short yelp as he fell in the bush next to the front stairs.

She uncovered her eyes cautiously and peeked through her fingers at the mess that was lying there, in front of her.

She ogled at some sort of dog ears that were sticking out in the air and some big lollipop that was glued to a messy, green hair and she whimpered a little, before she descended the stairs in a hurry and bent over the poor guy. He mumbled something, but it was muffled by the leaves and the branches his face landed into, so her body inclined further as her ear approached his head, trying to understand what he was saying.

"What?" She timidly inquired, feeling drops of sweat trickling down her temples.

"I said...you should have screamed louder!"

She backed away really fast, yelping, and she almost stumbled and fell on her back, although she managed to regain her balance.

The person in front of her scrambled through the bush as he tried to stand up. Flaker bit her nails in nervousness, having no idea what she was supposed to do. She decided to help him get out of there, after she noticed that his head was apparently stuck between the branches. She stepped forward, grabbed his ankles and pulled with all her strength, before they both yelled as he untangled and fell over her.

Flaker closed her eyes tightly and shielded herself with her arms when she ended up on her back, covered in dirt, leaves and especially when she realized that a guy costumed in what appeared to be a dog hovered above her.

"N-nathan!" She huffed as she pushed him off her. She stood up, shook the dust off her black skirt and arranged her witch hat, while he was barely moving to stand on his own legs. "I'm sorry." She mumbled, wringing her hands anxiously and biting her lip. He raised his head and stared at her blankly for a moment, before he burst into laughs, apparently amused by the whole situation.

"Jesus, you're still a scaredy cat as always." He spoke through his snickering. She smiled shyly, but her smile was abruptly wiped off her face when she observed the black and white photo from his hand, the one that he had shoved into her face earlier.

Nathan observed her distracted attention and looked down at the picture, which was seemingly a reason to be enthusiastic about because he grinned widely and got into her face, making her cringe from the lack of personal space.

"Check this out." He lifted it and Flaker widened her eyes when she realized what Nathan had in mind. The boy from the black and white photo was Mike, one of their classmates and Petunia's ex boyfriend. What actually terrorized her was the title that was written above him with enormous letters: _MISSING_.

"He's dead, I tell you." Nathan told her fascinated, his eyes large and sparkly. "The freak murdered him." Flaker's lower lip trembled a little as she shook her head and hugged herself, shivering due to the sudden coldness that crept up on her. Her eyebrows knitted into a frown and her mouth turned into a straight line. She felt her mind starting to spin from all the horrible emotions that jabbed at it.

She raised her hand, grabbed the photo from his hands and crumpled it, throwing it at the bottom of her empty, pumpkin-shaped bag.

"Leave me alone, Nathan." Flaker muttered, passing near him and heading towards the end of the sidewalk, at the edge of the main street. He ran after her.

"I don't care about the photo." He ranted behind her as he followed her. "The lamp posts and the walls are covered in pictures with Mike. I'm really eager about his disappearance, cause it'll finally prove Flippy is a murderer. I can't wait for it."

She went to a halt as she put a stop in her tracks and made him bump into her, before she turned around frustrated.

"Why are you here anyway?" She asked. "Aren't you supposed to be with the Smuggler twins?" All the enthusiasm snapped away from him as he shrugged in indifference.

"They've said they want to steal some kids' candies. I don't really do this kind of stuff, so I've decided to come here and wait for the guys with you."

Flaker looked at him doubtfully.

"I don't think they'll just welcome you with open arms like that and let you hang out with them after-"She stopped and blinked at him, somewhat embarrassed, when she remembered _she_ was actually the reason he had left their group.

She saw some sort of regret in his eyes for a moment, although it was barely noticeable- or maybe it was just her imagination, since she was quite naïve and believed everyone was good-, and he also appeared to be planning something because he grinned too suddenly for her liking.

"That's why I've come to you first." He sneakily winged an arm around her shoulders. "You have quite the influence on them, trust me, so you'll convince them to accept me back." Flaker stared blankly at him, quite stupefied by his attitude. He really was more of a jerkass than she thought.

She didn't manage to retort, because a blue car suddenly stopped in front of them as two heads appeared on the back window, two large grins being thrown at her.

One of the grins was instantly wiped off as the other gradually faded away when the two boys spotted Nathan next to her.

"What the hell are you doing here, Nutty?" Cody yelled at him through all the commotion.

She noticed an uneasy smile making its way on Nathan's face, before she felt his elbow slightly bumping into her upper arm. Flaker sighed. Sometimes she had the sensation that people took advantage of her way too often.

"Nathan is sorry. He wants back in our group." She mumbled half-heartedly.

None of them said anything for a few moments and a heavy tension seemed to fill the air, as other costumed children ran and laughed around them, enjoying the dark celebration of Halloween.

Then the front window suddenly opened as pink and blue hair covered her vision. Ginger appeared quite unconvinced by Flaker's mumbling, while Petunia's frown clearly suggested she wasn't keen on letting their classmate back in their group.

"Well, we don't believe you, asshole!" Petunia snapped, narrowing her blue eyes.

Nathan threw his arms up in the air exasperated.

"Come on, guys! I'm really sorry, I mean it!"

Her friends continued to stare at him for a few seconds, before one of them broke the silence.

"Then apologize to Flaky." Ginger told him in a grave tone. "If you apologize to Flaky, then we'll let you back."

Flaker saw Petunia open her mouth to protest, but Ginger raised her hand and stopped her before she escaped a word. The blue haired girl crossed her arms and frowned, still annoyed with the situation.

Suddenly, Nathan threw himself at her feet, landing on his knees and grabbing the edge of her skirt, making her cringe.

"Oh, my dear maiden," He started off dramatically, "How can I repent myself in front of-"

"A-alright!" Flaker squeaked, trying to back away from him. She couldn't distance herself because he was tightly holding the fabric of her skirt, so she put her palm on the top of his head, pushing him away. Nathan fell on his back on purpose, before he rolled around on the pavement, scrunching his features.

"You're so violent, Flaky!" He told her, trying to appear hurt. Cody and Thomas burst into loud laughs as Ginger giggled. Petunia just rolled her eyes.

The next thing Flaker knew was that she was being squeezed between Thomas and Nathan in the backseat of Petunia's car.

The boys talked loudly and Flaker almost covered her ears with her hands, since their voices almost deafened her.

She flinched uncomfortable as she tried to push them away so that they wouldn't suffocate her right then and there, but they were apparently too absorbed into a heated debate to notice that they were squashing her like a bug.

A debate over whether Nathan's costume was a dog or a werewolf.

"I'm a werewolf, alright?" He mumbled as he filled his mouth with some sort of colorful, weird shaped jellies.

"You still look like a dog, Nutty." Thomas smirked, before he turned around, accidentally digging his elbow into Flaker's ribs in the process, making her twist her face into a pained grimace.

"Were-wolf." Nathan repeated threateningly. He then brightened as he shoved a green jelly worm into his mouth. "And what are you supposed to be? The butcher?" He snickered.

"I'm a ghost, you idiot." Thomas retorted. "And Cody here is a bunny rabbit." He chuckled lightly when the blonde boy furrowed his brow offended.

"Not any rabbit. The White Rabbit." He grumbled deadpan. "I have the suit jacket and the old clock, in case you haven't noticed."

The other two boys pursed their lips, barely retaining their laughter, which made Cody stretch his arm to punch them. Which ended in a small fight session that almost buried Flaker under her friends' weight.

"Cut it out, back there!" Ginger turned and randomly hit them, only managing in slapping Cody and Thomas. They reluctantly calmed down and Flaker quickly took a breath in, relieved by the sudden increase of air.

"Sorry, Ariel." Thomas grinned. Ginger shook her head.

"You guys just like to annoy everyone with your ridiculous guesses." She sighed mockingly. "I'm Rapunzel. Petunia is a skunk. Flaky is a witch. End. Of. The. Story." She promptly articulated, before she turned her back to them.

There was a slight pause, in which none of them said anything. Then Ginger turned again, shattering the silence.

"And really? Ariel? That's the mermaid for christ's sake." She spoke peeved as her mouth curled downwards.

She swiveled for the second time. Flaker noticed the boys looking at each other with obvious hilarity.

The peace didn't last long because Nathan suddenly stuck his face to the window, pointing at some fences they had just passed by. Flaker looked out the corner of the eye and barely caught sight of the same black and white photos that showed Mike.

"Told you!" He attracted their attention enthusiastically. "Told you the freak would kill again sooner or later!" Flaker froze as his words sent a chill right up her spine. She blankly stared ahead, her mind being emptied of her thoughts. Her nails dug into her palm as she sensed paranoia coming back to her.

It was as if the nightmare suddenly amplified.

"Oh god, not again." Cody mumbled irritated.

"We shouldn't have let this dumbass here!" Petunia snarled in the front.

"But it's true!" Nathan defended himself. "I swear I'm not trying to scare you, guys. Luke and Shane told me they saw Mike talking to Flippy a few days ago on the school's halls. I'm almost sure he did it this time!"

They heard Petunia scoff, but she didn't say anything anymore. They all remained quiet as an emotional strain overcame all of them. The sheer likelihood of the fact that Nathan might be right was absolutely terrifying.

Flaker didn't want to let Nathan convince her that those horrendous possibilities were actually true, but she couldn't deny it anymore. No matter how much she tried not to think about it, she couldn't help it.

She was almost certain he had committed murders. The fact that she had found out he had a mental instability after their last encounters convinced her Phillip was capable of doing those things.

He was insane. He was truly, madly, _criminally_ insane.

And she had to put up with him in the next few days because of their assignment.

She whimpered lowly as she slowly sunk into her seat. Fortunately, none of them heard her whimpers because Petunia brusquely stomped on the brakes, making the car go to a halt.

The blue haired girl stood like that for a few moments, before she opened the door and went out, slamming it. The others exchanged confused looks, then followed her lead, which made Flaker exhale in ease when she was suddenly released from her friends' suffocating backseat trap.

"I just a need a break from all this." Petunia grumbled, tossing her ponytail over her shoulder. "I've had it with this crap."

There was a complete stillness. Flaker realized there weren't many children who tricked or treated around that area. She put her arms around herself downcast, trembling a little.

Nathan suddenly perked up as his mouth curled up into a large grin.

"At least we stopped in front of a store. Can we go in and buy some Skittles?"

After that, Flaker was really glad death glares didn't actually kill.

…

She walked down the store's aisle, searching for the candies' section. She didn't even realize how they ended up there, because she was sure Petunia almost killed Nathan after he mentioned the word _Skittles. _

That was when Ginger interfered to convince her they really needed more sweets if they wanted a real Halloween party, even though Flaker knew that she had done that just to avoid another tiring fight.

"Do you know why she's so easily angered?" Flaker whispered to Ginger, who threw Petunia a quick look before she retorted.

"She's upset about Mike's disappearance. He was her boyfriend once so…you get it."

Flaker nodded in understanding. Ginger silently pointed to another aisle, before she disappeared around the corner. Flaker scanned the shelves, but didn't find anything that her interests concerned, so she bounded off towards the other aisle. She walked around for a while, until she noticed that none of her friends was in her sight anymore.

Feeling her pulse speed up when the panic welled up in her chest, she turned around and quickly stood up on the tip of her shoes, throwing a look over the shelves, but she couldn't see any of them. Then she observed that the store was quite large. She stood on her feet again and gazed around her, trying to discover where she had come from, so that she could follow the same way.

The thing was, she _didn't_ really remember where she came from. She just walked in a total frenzy, being preoccupied with her usual, nightmarish thoughts.

A red, small bag suddenly caught her attention, along with the colorful _Skittles_ title written on it, which made her smile a little and stretch her arm to grab it.

The red haired girl didn't even manage to make a move because a loud yell brusquely brought her to earth, snapping her out of her temporary good mood. She jerked in shock and stuck herself to the shelf, her chest going up and down in large breaths.

Her heart was drumming like crazy and her head was spinning from the terror that took over her mind. Biting her fingers, she slowly turned around and threw a peek over the shelf, searching for the source of the noise.

She couldn't believe it. She just _couldn't._

It was like a curse that was following her everywhere.

A curse in the form of Phillip Phren.

Flaker whimpered when she noticed him there, in front of the cashier. He was apparently really infuriated and she was sure he was flipped out, because the man behind the counter was cowering in fear.

Phillip suddenly bent over the counter and grabbed him by the front of his shirt, staring as if he wanted to murder him.

"No tacos? No tacos! ARGH. What kind of store is this if you don't even have any tacos? I mean, it's a staple, _a staple_!" Like a tiger, he leapt forward and grabbed the cashier's head. "Explain this, you useless _ape brain_." He growled in his face. Flaker believed for a moment the cashier was going to burst into cries, but he just weakly shook his head, gazing desperately at Phillip.

"I-I c-can't." He mumbled in terror. He looked as if he was going to throw up from the anxiety.

Was he for real? Was he _really_ freaking out over some tacos? Flaker blinked a few times, her eyes wide and watery. She almost feared for the poor guy that Phillip was abusing in that moment.

Then Phillip stopped for a moment and narrowed his eyes threateningly.

"What about burritos?"

The man's mouth curled in, probably afraid to give an answer. Flaker bit her nails, almost to the flesh. She expected the man to say no, she expected Phillip to throw a fit, to go absolutely ballistic, perhaps even murder him.

"Y-yes, it's at the-"

The cashier didn't even have time to finish it because Phillip abruptly released him and threw him into the shelf behind him, before he turned around and went flying past the shelves of foods with an inhuman speed.

Flaker hurriedly backed away and, in her absolute panic attack, she hit an entire pyramid of cans, which instantly crashed, most of them rolling around on the floor in all directions.

She gave a yelp when she realized she had made an infernal noise and she quickly looked around, searching for an escape, intending to get out of there before he noticed her. She carefully jumped over some cans, trying with all her might not to stumble over them, as she trembled hard.

Then she suddenly bumped into something that definitely hadn't been there moments ago.

Something immovable and considerably _bigger_.

She slowly lifted her red face, stricken with horror, to see an army shirt. Then a vile smirk. Then those mad, green eyes.

Flaker gasped and turned away in a hurry, but he caught her wrist and spun her around, making her give a cry in fear.

"Well, if it's not my favorite, little pumpkin pie." He grinned mockingly as he pierced her with his hypnotizing stare.

Her lower lip quivered before she struggled and tried to pull her hand away with all her strength, but his hold was like a trap. He didn't flinch at all as he continued to stare amused at her useless attempts to free herself.

"Say, my little muffin," He carried on ironically, "Have you ever eaten a burrito?"

She couldn't think of what to say. The gears in her mind stopped turning. What was up with him and those foods? "…No…" She mumbled. WRONG ANSWER.

His smirk faltered as he enlarged those eyes that drowned in insanity.

"No… burritos?" He repeated, probably on the edge of having a fit again. "Are you fucking _kidding_ me?" He tightened his clutch on her wrist and suddenly darted towards the end of the aisle, dragging her after him and making her squeak along the way. Then he suddenly decided to come to a screeching halt, causing her to ram right into him and fall over.

"Argh! Jesus!" She screamed, in shock at what had happened in the past minute.

"You're truly bizarre." He sounded quite frazzled as he tilted his head to the side.

Yeah…_she_ was the one bizarre there.

"W-what do y-you w-want from me?" She murmured, desperate and teary-eyed.

"I can't believe you've never had a burrito." He responded, as if that would answer her question. "_Everyone_ should have a burrito." He said darkly.

Then he 'helped' her get up in that twisted way of his. He suddenly grabbed a fistful of her hair and wrenched her up, slowly, while she screamed like a banshee. Flaker used her legs to scramble upwards so he wouldn't tear it all out. All the while he seemed to be enjoying himself, laughing wildly and tossing his head back in delight.

Even when she was up on her feet, he wouldn't let go. He just dragged her all the way to the very back of the store, and then pressed her face into the glass door of the shelf with one hand on the back of her neck.

"See!" He pushed himself up to the door. "There!" He pointed to a box.

"W-what!" She matched his tone and volume. At that point, she was so dizzy and whirled in fright and distress that she couldn't even think straight. It was an instinct to give him answers, to do what he said, just so he wouldn't murder her.

"There…" He suddenly got really quiet, really whisper-y. "The red one," He was wide-eyed, as if it was something awe-inspiring. Then he stood up straight, still pressing her into the glass, and said, "That's a box of burritos."

He still didn't release her as he got his burritos. Then he rolled her around, so that she would face him, and grinned widely again, while Flaker's mouth turned into a tight line, her eyes gawking up at him, awestruck and horrified.

"I'm kinda pissed off tonight so we should hang out. You're fun." He revealed his sharp teeth in a grin.

NO. _No._ That was…it was _horrifying_. He couldn't. He couldn't make her. Not after what Nathan had told her. Not after she had found about his insanity. Not after she was almost sure that he had committed murders.

He was going to kill her too. If she went with him, she was sure he was going kill her.

She was going to end up just another victim on his list. Even if she escaped alive, she would be forever traumatized.

Not that she wasn't already.

"P-please. I-I can't. I'm with m-my f-friends, they'll w-worry, oh god, please." She tripped over her own tongue trying to get that out. He looked at her. Just looked. He appeared tremendously pleased with the fact that she was begging him.

Then he abruptly tugged her towards him as he approached his face to hers.

"And you'll give those twits an excuse later." He dangerously lowered his voice. "Now you're coming with me."

He didn't even let her blink, because he sprang back, carrying her after her him, ignoring her pleas. The cashier was still struggling to recover after the shock he'd received. His eyes became like dinner plates when he saw Phillip coming closer and he lowered his head down in terror as they passed near the counter again.

She didn't think he'd actually do it, but to her surprise, Phillip threw money at him before they exited the store.

Flaker looked back in despair, still hoping that one of her friends had at least seen her leaving the place with Phillip, but it was no use. She fought his clutch with tears in her eyes as she tried to release herself from his tight grip.

The worst scenarios passed through her head; scenarios in which Phillip was going to maul her, stab her with whatever he'd find, even a straw or a fork. He would probably then leave and get away with it. She was almost sure he was able to do it. Or maybe he was going to bury her alive. The possibilities were limitless.

She whimpered as she tried to unclench his fingers with her other hand, but she just managed to strain herself.

"Stop struggling." He snarled at her. Flaker let a heavy breath out as her head almost imploded.

She looked down, at the pavement, conforming with the fact that she was as good as dead. Her fate was ending there. She almost burst into cries, but she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her like that again.

She didn't know how much they walked at a quick pace, but she noticed they eventually entered a park that was quite crowded, to her relief.

She seriously thought about screaming for help, but she decided against it. He would probably kill her on the spot, without even caring that there were people around.

He suddenly stopped in his tracks and released her and Flaker gave a short yelp when he pushed her on an empty bench. She quickly scrambled, trying to get up and run, but he just snorted and pushed her again, more forceful the second time.

When he sat too, she shuffled as far away as she could from him, but he just came onto her and shoved the burrito in front of her, almost making her gag.

"_Eat_." He growled at her.

If she had thought he couldn't get weirder than he already was, then she had been wrong.

Flaker instinctively swiped the thing out of his hand as she pursed her lips and gaped petrified at him. What if he poisoned it? She didn't want to die poisoned. She knew that thought was absurd, because she had been with him the whole time he had that food and he didn't do anything to it, but she couldn't help it. Her paranoia was stronger than her logic at that moment.

"P-please, I don't w-want to die poisoned." She mumbled quietly. He didn't share her muted attitude. He just gawked at her, before he started laughing wildly like some mad scientist or something.

"I can't believe you just said that! I mean, yeah, sure, stupid things have come out of your mouth before, it's to be expected, but nothing like that!"

She didn't say anything, just sat there and looked at him blankly. His amusement stopped abruptly. He leaned forward and hissed, "Eat the goddamn burrito." And really, she thought it was becoming a habit, because he dug his fingers into her hair again and pulled her head back as he shoved the food into her mouth.

She choked and flailed her arms and legs around as she tried to get that thing away from her mouth, with tears in her eyes.

"Gah- She gurgled, "I can't-"

"What was that?" He inquired loudly, looking at her with a fixed, mad stare. "I can't hear you well!" He continued mockingly as the disturbing grin on his face became even larger. Flaker tried to turn her head away from him, but he forcefully tugged at her hair, making her escape a loud cry in pain.

"Argh! I'll d-do it! I'll eat it!" She yelled in despair. Phillip smirked and released her as he pushed the food in her face again.

As soon as he set her free, Flaker grabbed her own hair with her hands, as if she tried to assure herself that it was still there. She looked up at him teary-eyed, trembling and quivering wildly, before she weakly drew her hand out and fearfully grasped the strange food. All she wanted to do right then was cry and wail, but she knew that would be ridiculously pathetic, even for her.

She stared at the food for a moment as if it was a dead, rotten animal. Then she gulped and closed her eyes tightly, before she took a small bite. She waited a few moments for the poison to spread through her blood and put an end to her life, but, to her perplexity, nothing happened.

She carefully opened her eyes and looked up at Phillip who was still smirking down at her, his weird green eyes following her reactions like a predator.

"See. That wasn't so bad, you dumb marshmallow." He talked to her again as if she was a small kid.

Butterflies did backflips in her stomach, reminding her of her insignificant infatuation. She couldn't believe that she still had an infatuation with him after all the things he had been constantly doing to her. She wanted to beat herself up for being such a dimwit.

She turned her gaze towards the pavement in frustration and embarrassment.

"Please stop calling me names." She muttered.

She should've seen it coming, but it happened so fast that she didn't even have time to consider it. Phillip instantly bent over her, covering her entirely. She gave a loud squeak and widened her eyes at him, putting her palms on his chest and trying to push him away. He didn't budge at all.

"I'll call you what I fucking want to, got that?" He sneered in her face menacingly, face twisted into a feral expression. She felt her eyes moisten up as she nodded shaking. He stared hard for a few moments. "Now eat that burrito." Before he drew back, dark and threatening.

Flaker greedily gulped air as she tried to come to her senses. "G-god." She tremulously breathed. 'Don't cry. Just don't cry, dammit.' She had to hang on to that thought.

He calmly waited for her as she took small, careful bites from that enormous sandwich. Flaker had to admit that it tasted quite good, but she was so overwhelmed by fear, that she felt she was eating rubber. Her mind was swirling into a maddening vortex of negative emotions, particularly desperation, terror and dread.

Phillip just watched her with a kind of focus she hadn't yet experienced. It was pretty intense and it made her feel as if he was a kidnapper that supervised her, so that she wouldn't escape.

If she thought better, they weren't far from that.

"It must be nice to have someone to hang out with all the time." He suddenly spoke, voice void of any feeling. She stopped and raised her eyes, blinking at him.

She believed for a second he returned to his normal self; she believed he wasn't flipped out anymore, but his eyes told the contrary. She was so stricken by his words, that she remained frozen. She couldn't believe that he said such a thing.

A heavy feeling settled in her stomach and she looked down. She couldn't realize what it was, maybe it was her conscience, but it was something painful that gnawed at her gut.

And then she realized she was actually feeling sorry for him. Which frustrated her, because he treated her in such a despicable way most of the time. And then other reasons to feel sorry for him came to her in a wave. Like the fact that he had a mental illness, he was a complete lunatic and he was always taking those pills.

She shifted uncomfortably. "Um…" She began. "I'm, uh, I'm…I'm sorry." She finally managed to get it out. It felt weird. She didn't even know what she was apologizing for.

Maybe for the fact that he didn't have any friends. That he didn't have anyone to spend time with. That he was insane. Maybe for all of them.

Phillip burst out into hysterical laughter. And she meant it, hysterical. His whole body was shaking and he was practically crying. "That's the best thing I've heard all week!" He cackled. "Come on, say it again, just for fun!"

Flaker blushed furiously as she huffed offended.

"W-wha- what?" She stuttered defensively. "I-I actually m-meant it."

"Well now, I'm positively _thrilled_." He retorted sarcastically.

She moved back a little. "No, really," She lowered her tone, in a way that a severely humiliated person might.

His mouth curled down in disgust. "Yeah, whatever. I don't need your goddamn pity." He grumbled. When he noticed that she couldn't eat the burrito anymore, he snatched it from her hands and started chewing it, still staring at her in his twisted, 'special' way.

When he finished it- which he did, pretty quickly-, he brusquely stood up and stretched his arm towards her, probably waiting for her to grab his hand. Flaker gaped at it tense and panicky. They stood like that in silence for a few uncomfortable seconds.

"Stop being such a prick and take my hand." He snapped, all of a sudden hostile. Flaker stood up in a hurry and reluctantly took it as she started shaking uncontrollably, for the umpteenth time in that night.

"W-where a-are we g-going?" She inquired fretting. She tried not to think about it, she tried to make her mind just _be quiet. _But of course it wouldn't shut up. It kept saying all those horrendous things and, well, it's not like she had any other choice but to listen.

She waited for him to give her the bad news, to tell her that was her end. That he was going to murder her.

He actually said something _else_ entirely.

"To your place." He answered shortly.

Was he going to murder her family too? Her heart was thudding in her head, louder than ever. Every fiber in her body was clenched tightly, as another row of possible methods of torture and murders passed through her mind. They walked in silence for a while.

It was unusually cold that night so she was glad she had taken her thick, red sweater. Phillip was still in his usual army clothes and black boots. Except that he had some sort of green military hat too, in that night, one that matched his clothes.

She watched him. It was so surreal; he really looked like a ghostly mental patient, with dark circles under his eyes and pallid, almost translucent skin- as cliché as that sounded- drifting in and out of the glow of the streetlights. She wondered what his mother looked like. She wondered if he had killed her, if she had killed herself, if maybe that was what made Phillip such a psycho. She sort of wanted to ask him, partially because she wanted to know and partially because she was curious of his reaction.

He would probably kill her, so she didn't do it.

"What are you staring at?" He asked, shattering the hush of nighttime. He kept looking intently forward.

"Nothing." She quickly replied, feeling speckles of goosebumps down her arms. He really was like an animal, capable of sensing her fear.

Of course, the way back hadn't been peaceful. By far. He had numerous psychotic fits, complete with the whole insane laughing and angry yelling.

Flaker realized that it was probably the most terrifying night she had ever had.

He constantly scared the kids that passed near them by yelling "trick or treat, I eat human meat!" and he enjoyed it too, because he laughed like a maniac every time the poor beings ran away in total panic attacks.

Sooner or later, she saw the small, white house that she recognized as her own. She didn't know if she was supposed to be relieved, enthusiastic or horrified.

Because she didn't know what his demented plan actually was. She didn't even know how he had found out where she lived and she didn't want to think about it either. It would just make things worse than they already were.

When they reached the front stairs, she frenziedly thought about screaming, warning her parents. He released her hand and grabbed her shoulders before he turned her around, making her face him.

"That was fun! We should do it some other time too!" He grinned, still bright and entertained after the last scare he gave to a group of middle schoolers.

Flaker looked up at him, rigid and immobile. If he was going to forcefully take her to random walks like that again, then she didn't want to imagine the hell her life was going to turn into.

"Please, d-don't ever d-do this to m-me again, ever." She murmured.

His grin turned into a smug-yet-satisfied smirk. He tipped his head to the side and stared for a moment at her with some sort of…of _homicidal_ look in his eyes. It was chilling.

Then his hand went up her skirt as his other one wrapped around her waist and brought her really close to him, pressing their bodies together.

Flaker yelped and put her hands between them, on his chest. She wasn't sure whether to push him off and risk being apart, or stay in that awkwardly close position. Something inside her gut was quivering and she couldn't tell if it was from the apprehension or the…the other thing.

"Oh, but I'm going to do this to you." His eyes glazed over with a lunacy that she could only attribute to a certain character from a certain movie about lambs. His hand slowly slid lower and lower until it reached her rear, which made her whimper.

"And _much _more."

His hand tightened on her rear as his other one traced her jaw line, before he grabbed her jaw and lifted it towards him. Flaky closed her eyes tightly and gave a short wail in fright, as she tried to turn her head away from him, but he just kept holding it in place with a strength that almost hurt her.

She felt his breath on her face. That was how close he was. She could feel her heart beating insanely against him. That was how scared she was.

She waited for what seemed like an infinity, she waited for something...for anything. But he did nothing.

Flaker opened her eyes only to see that he had again that smug smile that made him look like he knew everything. She bit her lip nervously and quickly averted her eyes in embarrassment because she was almost sure he had figured out that she had an infatuation with him. Her burning face was more than enough to prove it.

She sensed a slight pang of disappointment when he suddenly released her. She shouldn't feel that disappointment, but she couldn't help it. She didn't even know for sure what she had expected from him anyway. She had a vague supposition, but she didn't want to think about it.

Flaker peered at him. It was piercingly quiet between them. Unsettling, but she did nothing to break it. Her heart was pounding intensely, while Phillip just smiled shrewdly.

Then she abruptly turned and opened the door, bolting inside and slamming it behind her. She rested on it, trying to calm herself.

Her life wasn't going to turn into a living hell.

It was already one.


End file.
